I Was a Drab Little Crab Once
by Antamaurora Silvalanda
Summary: MODERN AU. While returning home on a cruise ship back to New Zealand, 22-year-old Sharon accidentally falls overboard and wakes up at the bottom of the ocean, where she comes across the monstrous Tamatoa, who she has known since childhood. Will Tamatoa recognize her? Is she the girl he has been seeing in his dreams? (NOTE: CHAPTER THREE HAS BEEN RE-WRITTEN!)
1. Chapter 1

Deep in the Realm of Monsters, in a giant seashell filled with treasures of all things shiny, the monstrous coconut crab known as Tamatoa snored peacefully as he sung in his sleep.

" _Well Tamatoa hasn't always been this glam...I was a drab little crab once..."_

As he drifted off into dreamland, Tamatoa moaned in distress, as he found he was soon experiencing a nightmare. Or so he thought.

He dreamed about a scared and fragile baby blue crab who was so small, that no shell would fit his tiny body. All the other crabs mocked and teased him for being ugly without a seashell and that he would never be accepted for the dingy little thing he was. It wasn't the baby blue crab's fault for being so small and different. He wished he could be as beautiful as the other crustaceans, with their big shiny seashells and bright colors, but most of the time, the poor baby blue crab would hide inside his half-cut coconut shell house and wish someday that somebody would love and accept him for who he was on the inside, as well as on the outside.

One day, a woman and her daughter walked into the shop in search of a pet. The small human child ran up to the cage with all the crustaceans and pressed her face against the glass. She looked and she looked, but none of the crabs seemed to catch her attention. That is until she glanced over and saw a pair of black and blue antennas sticking out of the coconut house.

The baby blue crab peeked his beady little eyes out of his hiding place and gazed up at the small human with shiny yellow hair and black-rimmed glasses, who was staring back at him in awe. The girl reached her hand inside the cage and lifted the coconut house over him. The baby blue crab covered himself with his tiny orange pincers, trembling in fear as the girl grasped her hand around him and lifted him up out of the cage.

"Hello", said the child.

The baby blue crab looked up again and saw the girl smiling at him.

"My name is Sharon. Would you like to come home with me?"

The baby blue crab gave her a little smile and shyly nodded his head.

"Aw, you're so cute", said Sharon. "I think I'll call you Tamatoa."

After Sharon and her mother paid the store owner, baby Tamatoa was placed inside a plastic box with a fresh carpet of sand. Sharon picked up the box and said to him, "Don't worry, Tamatoa. I'm going to take care of you now. That way, you'll never be lonely. I'll always love you, forever and ever."

Baby Tamatoa smiled at Sharon and snapped his little pincers up in the air, as if he wanted to reach out and give her a hug. A shimmering white light appeared around Sharon's body and the dream faded.

" _Now I know I can be happy as a clam, because you're beautiful, baby-"_

Tamatoa snapped his eyes open and groaned in annoyance, as he rubbed the top of his head and said, "Still having that same dream. "

The question was...what did it mean? Ever since his youth, Tamatoa always had a fondness for shiny things. He never cared or held any interest in humans. But maybe, just maybe, there was something in his life, or rather, someone, who meant more to him than silver or gold.


	2. Chapter 2

Whatever dream invaded his sleep the night before, Tamatoa brushed it off as nothing more than a stupid nightmare. Why would he be dreaming about a human child? Every since he could remember, Tamatoa was never interested in humans. He had everything he ever wanted: vast treasures, shiny objects, a beautiful seashell house, an endless supply of fish, a fabulous singing voice, and most importantly, himself. Vain and conceited, Tamatoa was known for tormenting all those who came across him, claiming them as physically unattractive and lesser than he was, while boasting in song about himself and how he was the most beautiful creature in the sea. Everyday, the gargantuan coconut crab would go out looking for new shiny trinkets to add to the mountain of gold and jewels on his back, not only to make up for his lack of security, but to make up for his plain appearance. Anyone who challenged him or even came near his sparkly shell would often end up as his dinner. However, despite having a collection as big as his ego, Tamatoa wasn't always the narcissistic monster he was now.

As her mother drove them back to the house, little Sharon held Baby Tamatoa's box in her lap and stared down at him the whole time, smiling happily at her new pet. The baby blue crab sat in the middle of his box and wondered what was happening or where they where taking him. Wherever it was, baby Tamatoa hoped it was someplace nicer than the one where he used to live.

Once they arrived, Sharon hopped out of the car and took baby Tamatoa up to her room. She cleared her nightstand and placed his box next to her bed.

"There you go, Tamatoa", said Sharon. "Your new home. I hope you like it. Want to listen to some music?"

Sharon walked over to the other end of the room and pressed the _Play_ button on her cassette player. A strange noise filled the room, followed by the sound of a man's voice.

 _"Pushing through the market square/All the mothers sighing/News had just come over/We had five years left to cry in..."_

Though he had no idea what it was or what the words meant, baby Tamatoa sure liked the sound of it.

Sharon walked back over and jumped onto her bed. She reached over and pulled baby Tamatoa out of his box, leaning her back against the pillows and gently petting him on his back. At first, the baby blue crab was scared. No one had ever treated him this kindly before and he thought nobody ever would. Once baby Tamatoa knew this little girl wasn't going to hurt him, his tense little body started to relax.

"I hope you like it here, Tamatoa", said Sharon. "This is where you're going to live from now on. I'll take good care of you and play with you everyday for as long as I live. I'll never let anything bad happen to you ever."

Baby Tamatoa looked up at Sharon and smiled, as she gave him a kiss on top of his head.

"Now you stay here", said Sharon, setting him down onto the soft bed. "And I'll be back with some lunch for us."

Sharon hoped down and headed out the door, leaving the baby blue crab all alone, with nothing but the music to keep him company.

 _"Fixed his stare on the wheels of a Cadillac/A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest..."_

As he let the music float around him, baby Tamatoa felt a strange feeling that made him want to move his little body in new ways he never felt before. He moved himself sideways and did a little spin every now and then, while using his pincers to make little motions in the air.

 _"And it was cold/And it rained/So I felt like an actor..."_

As he made up his little dance to match the beat of the melody, baby Tamatoa accidentally lost his balance and somehow managed to flip himself over, landing himself onto his back. He made an effort to try and push himself forward, but felt he couldn't move. As he struggled to turn himself over, baby Tamatoa felt as if the lyrics were mocking him.

 _"Stuck on my eyes/Five years, what a surprise/We've got five years/My brain hurts a lot..."_

Baby Tamatoa started to fear that this was all just a big setup. He was all alone and there was nobody around to help him. Would Sharon ever return? And if she did, would she leave him stuck like this? Baby Tamatoa didn't want to spend the rest of his life lying upside down.

But then, just at that moment, the door opened up and Sharon returned, carrying a tray of food. "I'm back! Huh?"

Sharon saw baby Tamatoa had fallen onto his back and was struggling to get up.

"Uh, oh."

Sharon closed the door with her foot and set the tray over on her table, before she ran over to the bed and gave baby Tamatoa a little push, turning him back over onto his feet.

"Are you okay?" Sharon asked him.

Baby Tamatoa looked up at her and gave her a slight nod.

"Oh", Sharon cooed sympathetically, picking baby Tamatoa up into her hands and carrying him over to the table. "I'm sorry, Tamatoa. I should have put you back in your box. The bed's so big and squishy, and you're so small. It's not your fault. I should have known better."

Sharon set the baby blue crab carefully on the table and sat down in a chair, picking up a handful of white flakes and setting them in front of baby Tamatoa.

"Here", said Sharon. "You'll feel better after you've had a snack."

Baby Tamatoa eyed the pile of white stuff in front of him and smelled a pleasantly sweet aroma. He picked up a single flake and sampled it. It was food! And it tasted so good, that it actually brought a smile to his face.

Sharon picked up one half of her tuna fish sandwich and took a big bite. She looked down at baby Tamatoa, who was happily wolfing down his food.

"I knew you'd like it", said Sharon with a mouthful. She picked up a glass of milk and took a sip, helping her wash down her food. "I figured since you were a coconut crab, you'd enjoy the food you're named after."

But before he could finish his meal, baby Tamatoa became distracted when he heard a new song starting to play in the room. It was the same man he heard before, but this time he used different lyrics.

 _"Stone love, she kneels before the grave/A brave son, who gave his life to save the slogans/That hovers beneath the headstone/And her eyes/For they penetrate her grieving..._

Suddenly, baby Tamatoa had an idea. He snapped his pincers up in the air to get Sharon's attention.

Sharon finished the one half of her sandwich and looked down at him. "What?"

Baby Tamatoa turned around and looked behind his back at Sharon, as he did a little dance for her. He turned back to face her, shaking his little head back and forth before doing a little twirl a few times. He swayed to the right and took a step to the left, snapping his pincers as he bobbed his head to the lyrics.

 _"Love is carless/In its choosing/Sweeping over/Cross a baby/Love descends on those defenseless/Idiot love will spark the fusion..."_

Baby Tamatoa jumped to the left and turned to the side, swaying to the left and taking two steps to the right. He twirled around once and gave a little bow.

Sharon smiled at him and said, "You like David Bowie too, don't you?"

Baby Tamatoa looked up at her and nodded his head.

Sharon pushed her seat back and stood up. She wiped the crumbs from her overalls and extended her hand out to the baby blue crab.

"May I have this dance, sir?" Sharon asked him, in a ladylike voice.

Without hesitation, baby Tamatoa jumped right into her hand.

Sharon placed her other hand underneath him and asked him, "You know what kind of music this is, Tamatoa?"

The baby blue crab shook his head.

"Mommy says it's called glam rock", Sharon explained, as she walked over to her cassette player and turned up the volume a bit.

 _"Idiot love will spark the fusion/Inspirations have I none/Just to touch the flaming dove/All I have is my love of love/And love is not loving..."_

Then Sharon walked over to the open space of her bedroom and began to slowly dance around with baby Tamatoa in her hands. They both stared into each other eyes, as they enjoyed listening to the ending verse of David Bowie's _Soul Love_. For Sharon, it was like reenacting a scene out of a fairytale, but for baby Tamatoa, it was one of the happiest moments of his life. A few hours ago, he was living a sad and lonely life. Now he had a new home, good food, nice music to listen to, and more importantly, he had Sharon. A friend who would never let him down. Someone who would always be there for him. To encourage him. A friend who he could trust. Someone who was willing to show him the world and explain it to him. As long as they had each other, Sharon and baby Tamatoa were completely inseparable. And though he didn't quite fully understand what glam rock was, baby Tamatoa knew it would leave a lasting impact on his life.


	3. Chapter 3 (Re-written!)

A few weeks later, Sharon had to go back to school. She did not want to leave baby Tamatoa alone by himself all day long, so she decided to take him with her. She kept him hidden in the front pocket of her overalls and did not take him out until recess. She kept herself to the wall of the building and sat down on the ground, as he removed the baby coconut crab from her pocket.

"Here you go, Tamatoa", said Sharon, setting him down on the concrete. "Stretch your little legs for a bit."

Baby Tamatoa looked over at the other children playing on the playground and started to walk over to them, until Sharon picked him up and said, "No, Tamatoa! I know you want to play with the other kids, but you're too little."

"Hey, Shari!"

Sharon looked to her left and saw three boys approaching her, two white boys and one black one. The oldest white boy was named Daniel. He had blue eyes like baby Tamatoa's, but they held neither warmth nor compassion. The other white boy was Daniel's little brother, Bret. He was about a year younger than Sharon and had curly black hair. The black boy, the who had spoken, was named Joaquin.

"Where'd you get that shrimp from?" Joaquin asked her in a mocking tone of voice. "The Muppets Show?"

Daniel laughed at his friend's joke, but Bret only looked at his brother with uncomfortable silence.

Sharon glared at them and said, "For your information, he's a coconut crab and his name's Tamatoa."

"What does he do?" Bret asked her, curiously.

Sharon looked down at the baby coconut crab and told him, "Do your dance for them, Tamatoa."

The baby coconut crab demonstrated his dance moves by hopping from Sharon's right hand to her left, before taking two steps to the right, swaying to the left as he moved his head back and forth, before twirling himself into the air and landing back into Sharon's palm, bowing before the trio before them.

"Wow!" Bret exclaimed. "I've never seen a crab dance like that before."

"There's no other one like him", said Sharon, looking down at her beloved pet. "Right, Tamatoa?"

The baby coconut crab looked up at his owner and smiled, nodding his heading agreement, but neither Daniel nor Joaquin were impressed.

"You call that dancing? I call it having a seizure attack!" Said Joaquin.

Baby Tamatoa blinked in confusion.

"What do you know about dancing?" Sharon said to Joaquin. "You're just a phony!"

"Hey, Sharon", said Daniel, a nasty smile on his face. "Why don't you let me take your stupid crab over to my house tonight, huh? My dad knows how to make a mean crab cake."

"Shut up Daniel!" Sharon shouted.

Suddenly, Daniel's smirk disappeared, his cold blue eyes filled with malice. He walked over to Sharon and asked her, "What did you say to me?"

"You heard me!" Said Sharon. "And another thing, Tamatoa's more of a prince than you'll ever be, you ugly beast!"

Daniel grabbed Sharon's left ear and pinned her against the wall of the building. Sharon cried out in pain, holding baby Tamatopa with one hand as she tried to pull Daniel's hand away from her, grabbing onto his wrist.

"You say that again and you'll be sorry, you four-eyed freak", Daniel threatened her in a low voice.

"Ow! You're hurting me!" Sharon cried.

A new emotion started to take control over baby Tamatoa: anger. No one hurts his Sharon. Ever!

Bret grabbed onto his older brother's arm and tried to pull him away from Sharon, defending her. "Daniel, let her go!"

"Shut up, Bret", said Daniel, ignoring his brother, as he pushed him to the ground.

Suddenly, baby Tamatoa jumped onto Daniel's hand and pinched his fingers, causing the boy to cry out in pain, as he released Sharon and threw his hand backwards, sending the baby coconut crab flying through the air, before he landed onto the hard concrete, lying motionless.

"No!" Sharon ran over to baby Tamatoa, while Bret stood up and ran the other way to get a teacher.

Sharon dropped to her knees and carefully picked up the baby coconut crab into her hands. "Tamatoa, are you okay?"

Sharon turned his body over and saw that he was still alive, but something was still wrong. His left eye was badly bruised and the pupil was dilated, leaving it completely black except for a tiny streak of blue.

"Oh, no", Sharon gasped, her face turning red as her eyes filled up with tears.

Dazed and confused, baby Tamatoa blinked and tried focusing on Sharon. _What's wrong with her face?_ He asked himself. _Why is there water in her eyes?_

Sharon turned her head left and looked over at Daniel, who was being calmed down by Joaquin, as they tried to stop his finger from bleeding.

Feeling a burning hatred towards the two boys who insulted her beloved coconut crab, Sharon set baby Tamatoa down on the ground and ran over towards them, wrestling Daniel to the ground, while Joaquin tried to pull her off. Sharon punched Joaquin in the face, while Daniel jumped onto her back, wrestling her to the ground. She did not care that he broke her glasses in the process, as she tried kicking him in the leg. Baby Tamatoa covered his eyes and dared not to look at the violent act happening right in front of him.

When Sharon's mother got the call from the school about what had happened, she walked into the principle's office and found her daughter sitting in a chair, her broken glasses hanging off of one of her ears and the baby blue crab poking his beady little eyes out of her front pocket. The woman could only shake her head in disappointment. Sharon's mother took baby Tamatoa back home with her and told her daughter that she would not be allowed to play with him until all her homework was done. Once she got back to the house, Sharon's mother placed baby Tamatoa inside his little box and told him, "From now on, you stay here. I know my daughter loves you very much, but Sharon has other responsibilities besides you."

Just as she was turned around and was about to walk out the door, baby Tamatoa snapped his tiny pincers into the air, as if he wanted a hug, or at least some company.

Sharon's mother looked back at the little coconut crab, as he placed his pincers on the wall of his plastic prison and stared back at her with sad, soulful eyes.

Feeling sympathy for the poor creature, Sharon's mother sighed deeply and walked back over to the baby blue crab. She knelt in front of the nightstand and reached her right hand into the plastic box, gently stroking her index finger over baby Tamatoa's head.

"If only you were here, Charles", Sharon's mother said to herself, before she stood up and left.

After she had gone, baby Tamatoa walked towards the middle of his box and made himself a comfortable spot, as he nestled himself in the sand. He rested his head down on his pincher and closed his eyes, sighing sadly before drifting off into a nap.

Baby Tamatoa woke up a few hours later when he heard the door slam open. He turned his head to see who it was and saw it was Sharon. The little baby coconut crab stood up as he watched Sharon slam the door shut, threw her backpack on the floor, and throw herself onto her bed, burying her face as strange gasping sounds escaped her throat.

After a few minutes, Sharon looked over at baby Tamatoa, her face was red and wet with tears. She picked up the little baby coconut crab out of his box and held him close to her chest.

"I'm so sorry you got hurt, Tamatoa", Sharon cried. "Those stupid boys! They're all a bunch of retards." She kissed the baby coconut crab on his damaged eye and said to him, "I don't care what they say, Tamatoa. I love you for who you are, inside and out. I hope you never grow up to be that cruel, Understand?"

The baby coconut crab nodded his head, understanding her.

Sharon leaned her back against her pillows and reached over for the remote, turning the television onto her favorite movie, _Labyrinth_. She picked up from the infamous ballroom scene where Jennifer Connelly danced with David Bowie. As he watched the girl in the glittery dress dance with the man in the sparkly black jacket, baby Tamatoa hoped that one day he would grow up to be just like his idol.


	4. Chapter 4

"Did these humans find nothing worthy of value?", Tamatoa said to himself, as he dug through the damages of a wrecked pirate ship. A few minutes after finding nothing, Tamatoa turned the ship over and moved onto the next one. All he found was a couple of gold plates, some fancy silverware, a goblet decorated in blue gems, and a bronze scepter with a big ruby on it. After hours and hours of looking through the valley of shipwrecks and finding nothing but skeletons, Tamatoa finally found one ship that had a treasure chest full of sparkly jewels and shiny gold coins. "Now that's more like it", said Tamatoa. After adding them onto his shell, Tamatoa found a second chest, only to toss it aside when he found nothing in it but a bunch of silky fabrics and materials.

"Ugh! It's amazing what these humans consider treasure", said Tamatoa with disgust.

As the light above the water turned from gold to silver, Tamatoa decided that was enough for one day and was about to head back to his lair, when one of his legs stepped onto something hard. The gargantuan crab looked down and stepped back, only to see a elegant pink dress with lace lying on the ocean floor. Curious, Tamatoa lifted the dress and saw something sparkly sticking out of the sand. Dropping the fabric, the materialistic crab picked up the item and found it to be a silver crown with pink diamonds. As he eyed the silvery item gleaming in the moonlight, Tamatoa could have sworn he saw the face of a little girl with yellow hair and glasses giving him a sad look. Tamatoa growled in distress and looked away, covering his eyes with his claw. Why was he seeing this tiny human girl all of a sudden? She didn't mean anything to him! Did she? Tamatoa dared himself to look at the crown again and found no trace of the girl's face at all this time, though he could have sworn he heard the vocalizing of a child's voice in the back of his head, like a long-forgotten song that had been lost in a sea of memories all these years and was now starting to resurface.

As she adjusted the plastic crown on her head, Sharon hummed to herself and did a little twirl in front of the mirror. Dressed like a princess in a long blue dress and sparkly shoes, Sharon danced around her room and sang to herself, while baby Tamatoa sat down on her bed, admiring her from afar.

 _"La da, la da, la da da da da dum/la da, la da, la da da da da dum, da dum, da dum"_ , Sharon sung to herself, twirling around like a ballerina. _"But if I know you/I know what you do/You'll love me at once/The way you did once upon a dream."_

Sharon danced over to her bed and said to baby Tamatoa in a ladylike voice, "Hello. My name is Princess Sharon." She did a little bow and asked him, "How do you do, good sir? Would you care to dance with me?"

The baby blue crab jumped to the left and swayed to the right, snapping his claws in the air while he bobbed his head back and forth. He turned to the side and took two steps to the left, before he twirled into the air and bowed, making Sharon giggle with delight.

"Oh, you dance beautifully, sir", she said. "Hey, you want to see something cool, Tamatoa?"

The baby blue crab nodded his head with excitement.

"Okay", said Sharon, as she went over to fetch something on her shelf. She opened up a little pink treasure box and pulled out a long necklace of plastic gold beads. She walked back over to the bed and show it to baby Tamatoa, whose eyes became transfixed on the string of shiny yellow orbs.

"You like it?" Sharon asked him. "It's a necklace I won at a carnival last year. See?" Sharon waved the beaded necklace around a bit, making it glisten in the sunlight. "It's shiny, huh?" She set the necklace down in front of baby Tamatoa and said to him, "You can play with it if you want."

Baby Tamatoa clasped his pincers onto the plastic beads, his eyes almost bulging out of his head, and began muttering, "...Shh...Shh...Shiny!"

Sharon gasped in surprised and put her hands over her mouth.

Baby Tamatoa dropped the string of beads right away and looked up at her.

"D...Did you just talk?" Sharon asked him.

Baby Tamatoa slowly nodded his head, looking rather nervously at Sharon.

"Go on", she said. "Say something!"

Baby Tamatoa thought about, but then shook his head out of fear.

"It's okay, Tamatoa", said Sharon, stroking his back. "You can talk to me. I'm your best friend, remember?"

The baby blue crab lowered his head and put a pincer to his chin. He picked up the string of gold plastic beads and looked up at Sharon, as he held them up ti her and said, "Shiny?"

"I KNEW IT!" Sharon shouted with excitement.

This scared baby Tamatoa and caused him to fall backwards, landing himself onto his back again.

"Oops", said Sharon, giving him a little push. "Sorry, Tamatoa."

The baby blue crab rubbed his head and looked up at her.

"Can you say other things?" Sharon asked him.

Baby Tamatoa shrugged his little shoulders, giving her a modest look.

Sharon put a finger to her chin and said, "Hmm." She looked around the room, before going back to her shelf, taking some drawing paper and a crayon, and bring the supplies to her bed. She drew a cruddy picture of a flower and showed it to baby Tamatoa.

"You see this? This is called a flower. Flower!"

Baby Tamatoa eyed the drawing for a minute, before touching a pincer to the paper and saying, "F...Fl...flower?"

"Good!" Sharon exclaimed. She put down the picture and drew another one for baby Tamatoa. She showed him a picture of a heart and said, "See this? This is called a heart. Say 'heart'."

"Heart", said baby Tamatoa.

"Yep!" Sharon put down the drawing and picked up her necklace. "What's this called, Tamatoa?"

"Shiny!" Said baby Tamatoa with enthusiasm.

"No", said Sharon. "It _looks_ shiny, but it's called a necklace."

Baby Tamatoa gave her a confused look.

"Too big of a word for you?" Sharon asked him. "Okay, um...You know what these are called?" Sharon pointed to a bead on her necklace. "They're called beads."

Baby Tamatoa put a pincer to his chin and said, "Beads?"

"That's right!" Sharon praised. "Oh, boy. My very own Sebastian! This is so cool! This is amazing! This is-" Sharon gave a dramatic gasp and said to herself, "I need to put on a different dress."

Sharon took off her crown and set it down on the bed next to baby Tamatoa, who took more interest into her fake jewelry, instead of watching Sharon dig through her costume box for her mermaid dress.


	5. Chapter 5

Back in his lair, Tamatoa was nestled down on the sandy floor, still eyeing the crown he had found earlier. The giant coconut crab sighed deeply, pondering why his mind kept wondering back to that tiny little girl and what it meant. Had he seen her somewhere before? He had never been to the surface and it was impossible for any human, young or old, to swim to the depths of the ocean and make it into the Realm of Monsters. All his life, Tamatoa had always been alone. No family. No friends. Just himself and his collection of valuable treasure. But was gold trinkets the only thing he knew and cared about? Tamatoa never knew his parents and he had no memories prior to his life as a baby. Maybe there _had_ been somebody in his life before. But a human? The giant coconut crab scoffed at the idea and threw the crown onto his shell.

Looking up at the opening above his giant seashell house, Tamatoa could see the silvery light of the moon shining high above the ocean, like the reflection of the most beautiful diamond in the world. Just once, he wished he could go up to the surface, but Tamatoa promised himself that he would never venture out past the valley of ships. The world above was a dangerous place for the likes of him, and the people would either envy his beauty or see him for some monster, the latter which Tamatoa feared most.

Squinting his eyes in anger, the monstrous crab banged one of his giant claws against the wall and concealed himself inside the safety of his gold-covered shell, the opening to his home shutting him away into total darkness.

Over the next few weeks, Sharon would take two hours after school and teach baby Tamatoa how to speak. It didn't take long before the baby blue crab started to form full sentences. Though she was happy to learn that he could talk and wanted to tell everybody about it, baby Tamatoa did not want anyone else knowing about his secret. Sharon knew it was because he was afraid of what other people might think of him, but even though she promised he had nothing to fear, Sharon kept her word to baby Tamatoa and never told another soul about her discovery.

One day when Sharon came home, baby Tamatoa woke up from his nap and greeted her in a cute voice, "Hi, Sharon. What did you do today?"

"School stuff. What else?" Sharon tossed her backpack aside and jumped onto the bed, letting out a tired sigh. She turned over and took baby Tamatoa out of his box. She held him in her hands and gently stroked his back, as she said to him, "Boy, Tamatoa, if you were to talk a walk in my shoes, you'd be exhausted."

"I couldn't fit into your shoes", said baby Tamatoa. "I'm too little."

"I didn't mean it literally", said Sharon. "So, what did you do today?"

"Waited until you got home", said baby Tamatoa. "I wanted you to play with me."

"Well, I was thinking about doing some coloring", said Sharon. "You want to try it, Tamatoa?"

"What's that?"

"You'll see."

Sharon set baby Tamatoa down on her nightstand and jumped off her bed, before heading over to the other end of the room and taking several items off her shelf: crayons, paints, some drawing paper, and two paintbrushes. She set up all her crafting tools on the floor and laid out two pieces of paper, one for her and one for baby Tamatoa. Sharon then went back and picked up the baby blue crab, setting him down on the floor before lying down on her stomach.

"Which do you want to use first, Tamatoa: crayons or paint?" Sharon asked him.

The baby blue crab shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Sharon pulled out a blue crayon from her crayon box and handed it to baby Tamatoa. "Why don't you start out with one of these. It's easier."

The baby blue crab looked at the crayon in his pincers and then looked up at Sharon. "What do I do with it?"

"I'll show you", said Sharon, taking an orange crayon and drawing a simple line as a demonstration. "See? Now you try."

Baby Tamatoa looked down at the blank sheet in front of him and stepped onto the paper, using both his pincers to hold onto the crayon, as he drew a perfect straight line.

"Good", Sharon praised him. "Now just draw whatever you want."

The whole concept seemed so silly to baby Tamatoa, but since it was what Sharon liked to do, he was willing to give it a try. He started to draw another line, as Sharon hummed to herself and started painting a picture of a field of flowers with a paintbrush. Just when he was about to try drawing a circle, the crayon in baby Tamatoa's pincers snapped in half.

The baby blue crab gasped and said, "Uh-oh."

"Don't worry", said Sharon, taking the crayon away from him. "These crayons are old. They break all the time anymore. Here." Sharon handed him a long paintbrush and set a container of neon green paint next to him. "Try this."

Sharon finished her one painting and set it aside to dry, taking another sheet of paper and starting to draw another picture. Baby Tamatoa, however, dropped his paintbrush and looked into the container of bright liquid. The way it glowed made him want to just plunge himself into the varnish and make himself shine with color. Baby Tamatoa tried reaching one of his tiny pincers into the container, but instead, lost his footing and splashed paint all onto Sharon's painting.

"Oh, Tamatoa! You got glow-in-the-dark paint all over everything!" Sharon groaned.

"Sowwy", said baby Tamatoa, looking timidly at her.

Sharon stood up and left the room, a look of annoyance on her face. Baby Tamatoa was afraid she was mad at him and decided to take refuge under the bed. Sharon returned a minute later with a towel and started cleaning up the mess. After putting all her arts and crafts stuff away, Sharon left again to put the towel in the hamper and wash the paint off her hands. When she returned back to her bedroom, Sharon found no trace of the baby blue crab, except for a trail of tiny, bright green droplets that led to the bed.

Sharon walked over and peaked under the covers, only to find baby Tamatoa cowering underneath the mattress, his face masked behind his pincers.

"It's okay, Tamatoa", said Sharon. "I'm not mad at you. It was an accident."

"But...I destroyed your painting", said baby Tamatoa, sounding like he was about ready to cry.

"Oh, I don't care about that", Sharon reassured him. "I can always paint another one."

Baby Tamatoa looked up at Sharon, as she reached her hand underneath the bed and said to him, "Can you come out now?"

The baby blue crab still felt bad for what he had done and looked at Sharon's hand in despair for a minute, before finally giving in and slowly crawling into her palm. Sharon carefully pulled him out from under the bed and placed him onto her bed.

"Don't feel bad, Tamatoa", said Sharon. "Besides, I have a surprise for you."

Sharon turned around and crouched down, opening her backpack and taking something out of it. She turned back to face baby Tamatoa and held out her hands, revealing to him a beautiful cream-colored shell covered with pearls and gold glitter glue designs all around it.

Baby Tamatoa's gasped in surprise and his mouth hung open in wonder.

"I made this for you at school today", said Sharon, setting the seashell down in front of him.

Baby Tamatoa stood there eyeballing the beautiful object for a fill minute, before carefully rubbing his pincers onto the reflective surface and saying to Sharon, "You made this just for me?"

"Uh-huh", said Sharon. "Try it on."

Baby Tamatoa crawled underneath the shell and positioned himself comfortably inside it, before poking his head and pincers out. The baby blue crab looked over his shoulder and gave it a good shook to see if it would come off. The shell fit him like a glove! Baby Tamatoa smiled and was happy as a clam that he now had his very own sparkly seashell.

"Now, Tamatoa, just because I made this shell for you, doesn't mean you get to boast and brag about it", Sharon warned him.

Baby Tamatoa's smile vanished and he turned around to face her.

"Remember", said Sharon. "It's okay to look beautiful, but it's more important to always be yourself. Remember, listen to your heart and be who you are on the inside. Repeat it."

Baby Tamatoa looked hesitant, but timidly repeated, "L-listen to your heart...Be who you are...on the inside."

"Good. Never forget that." Sharon picked up baby Tamatoa into her hands and placed him back inside his box. "Now you stay in here. I have to get ready and wash up for dinner. I'll bring you some fresh tuna when I get back."

"Okay", said baby Tamatoa, settling down into the sand and admiring his brand-new seashell. He gave it a good tap with one of his pincers and felt no impact. He was complete.


	6. Chapter 6

Ever since the incident with the three boys at school, Sharon hadn't seen much of Daniel or Bret anywhere. _Maybe they moved_ , Sharon thought to herself. Either way, she didn't care. Things seemed to be going great, until one day, the two brothers showed up again at recess. Sharon was busy playing in the sandbox and took no notice of them, until she looked up and saw Bret coming towards her. She looked away at once and carried a look of arrogance on her face, as she shoveled sand into a pail.

Bret smiled and said to her in a shy voice, "Hi, Sharon."

"What do you want?" Sharon asked him, sounding annoyed.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry if Daniel hurt you or your crab", said Bret.

" _Coconut_ crab, thank you", Sharon corrected him. "Now if you don't mind, I'm trying to build a sandcastle."

Bret gave her a sad look, before turning around and walking away.

Sharon turned the pail over and made a perfect tower, before she glanced over and saw Bret walk over to the side of the building. He sat down and held his legs close to his chest, looking sad and lonely. Sharon felt bad immediately and stopped what she was doing.

As he sat there and watched the other children playing, Bret was caught off guard when he looked forward and saw Sharon standing in front of him.

"Did you really mean that, Bret?" Sharon asked him.

Bret said nothing, but nodded his head in response.

Sharon looked to her left and saw Daniel talking with Joaquin over on the playground. She was a bit surprised to see that he had his arm in a sling, though she didn't question it. She looked back at Bret and sat down next to him.

"Well, you _were_ the only one who didn't make fun of Tamatoa", she said.

"I thought he was pretty cool", said Bret. "I've never seen a crab dance like that before."

"Neither have I", said Sharon. "I knew Tamatoa was special the first time I saw him, but I didn't know he could do that. Sure, I could have chosen a normal pet, like a cat or a dog or something, but I'm allergic to cats and dogs scare me."

"Well, I'd rather have a dog than a dad any day", said Bret.

Sharon frowned and asked him, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know what happened or what we did wrong", said Bret. "But ever since my mum died last winter, my dad just sort of gave up on everything. He takes care of me and Daniel sometimes, but we mostly take care of each other while he just sits around and drinks all day."

Sharon glanced over at Daniel, who was now talking to two girls and showing off his broken arm.

"We were playing outside and Daniel went into the house for a minute", Bret continued. "The next thing I know, I heard my dad screaming and I run into the house. He grabbed Daniel by his arm and started yelling in his face, before he threw him across the room. Daniel hit his elbow on the coffee table and had to be taken to the hospital."

Sharon didn't understand. She had no idea what it was like having a father in her life, for hers had left before she was even born. She looked back at Bret and asked him, "Did he...hurt you?"

Bret gave her a sad look and didn't respond, but lifted the hair up and revealed to Sharon an ugly purplish-black bruise on the back of his neck.

"I don't understand", said Sharon.

"My dad said that if me or Daniel ever told anybody, he'd kill us", said Bret. "Daniel's scared of him just as much as I am, but he doesn't want us to be separated. I don't want to live like this, but just in case anything happened to me or Daniel, I wanted to know if you and I can be friends."

Sharon placed a hand over Bret's and placed her other hand over her heart. "Oh, Bret. Of course we can be friends."

"That's a relief then", said Bret. "And don't tell anyone this, but I kind of like you."

The bell soon rang and Bret went to look for his brother. Sharon, however, sat there for a full minute, trying to figure out what was just explained to her. _Was that what it was like having a father?_ She asked herself. Was that the reason why Daniel bullied her? Because he, too, was a victim? Sharon just had no idea.

When she arrived home after school, Sharon went to her room and started doing her homework. Baby Tamatoa wanted her to play with him, but Sharon told him she wasn't in the mood.

"Why not?" Baby Tamatoa asked her.

"I don't know, Tamatoa", said Sharon. "I just don't feel like it. Besides, you know my Mommy said I have to do my homework before I can play with you."

To keep him distracted, Sharon turned on her cassette player and let him listen to David Bowie. Baby Tamatoa practiced doing a little dance for himself, as he tried to make out the words to _Golden Years_.

After finishing her spelling, Sharon went to the kitchen and helped her mother set the table for dinner. Normally, the two would talk about the events of the day, but young Sharon just sat there quietly twirling her spaghetti with a fork, wondering about Bret and what might happen to him.

"Sharon, are you okay?" Sharon's mother asked her. "You've hardly touched your food."

Sharon was hesitant, but looked at her mother and asked her, "Mommy, why does Bret's Daddy hurt him and Daniel?"

Sharon's mother almost choked on her food. She wiped her mouth with a napkin and asked her daughter, "What?"

"Bret told me at school today that his Daddy beats him and Daniel constantly and that he threatened to kill them if they told anybody", said Sharon. "Bret told me not to tell anybody, but I'm afraid something bad might happen to him. I want to help him, but I don't know how. What do I do?"

Sharon's mother could not believe the words coming out of her daughter's mouth. A mixture of uncomfortable shock and unbelievable horror painted her face, as she tried to find the right words to explain the situation to Sharon. Snapping back into reality, Sharon's mother took her daughter's plate away and said to her, "Why don't get ready for bed? I need to make a few phone calls."

Sharon hopped down from her chair and took something from the fridge before heading back to her room.

As he ate his little platter of tuna, baby Tamatoa listened to Sharon, as she slipped into her nightie and asked him, "Do you remember Daniel and Bret, Tamatoa?"

"What about them?" Said baby Tamatoa, trying to enjoy his fish dinner.

"Well, Bret told me he was sorry for what Daniel did to you and me", Sharon explained.

Baby Tamatoa gulped down the rest of his food, before turning to Sharon and crossing his pincers, giving her a look of disbelief.

Sharon walked over to baby Tamatoa's box and said to him, "Don't be angry, Tamatoa. Bret's our friend now. You wanna know something else? He also told me you were really cool."

"But why should _he_ apologize for something he didn't do?" Baby Tamatoa questioned her. "The other boy was the one who hurt you."

"I know, but there's a perfectly good reason for that", said Sharon, jumping into bed. "I can't explain it, but Mommy said she'll take care of everything."

"Well, I hope so", said baby Tamatoa. He nestled himself down in the sand and gave his beautiful shell a good tap. "If I was as big and tough as he is, I'd show him who's boss."

"I know", said Sharon, taking off her glasses and putting them on her nightstand next to baby Tamatoa's box. The baby blue crab yawned and curled himself up inside his shell, as Sharon put her hands together in a prayer motion.

"Dear God, please bless Tamatoa and Mommy and Bret, and please deliver him and Daniel from the evils of their father. Amen."


	7. Chapter 7

When Sharon got up the next morning, her mother explained to her that she talked to some people and that they would soon find a good home for both Bret and Daniel. Sharon was happy to hear that and thought all was right with the world. She would soon prove to be wrong.

Summer vacation had arrived, which meant that Sharon had plenty of time to spend with baby Tamatoa.

"This is gonna be the best summer ever, Tamatoa", said Sharon, pulling off her nightie and putting on a t-shirt and pair of overalls.

"Why's that?" Baby Tamatoa asked her.

"Well, since school's out for the season, that means you and I get to spend the next three months doing whatever we want", Sharon explained. "Which means I'll get to spend more time playing with you."

"Yippee!" Baby Tamatoa jumped into the air with excitement.

"That's right", said Sharon. "And I know just the thing to get us started." After she finished tying her shoes, Sharon walked over to baby Tamatoa. She took him out of his box and asked him, "How would you like to take a bike ride with me through town, Tamatoa?"

The baby blue crab put a pincer to his chin and asked Sharon, "Is it safe?"

"Of course", said Sharon. "Why? Are you afraid to go outside or something?"

"No, I want to go, but what about your mother?" Baby Tamatoa asked her. "She said I'm not suppose to leave the house."

Sharon peeked around the corner and saw her mother sitting on the couch, reading a book. She looked down at baby Tamatoa, who peeked out of her front pocket and looked up at her. He nodded his head and Sharon quietly tiptoed to the door.

"Sharon!"

Sharon froze and stopped dead in her tracks, while baby Tamatoa ducked out of sight. "Yes, Mommy?"

"Be home by five o'clock, sweetie", said Sharon's mother, not looking up from her page.

Sharon breathed a quiet sigh of relief and said, "Okay, Mommy", before rushing out the door.

Sharon ran out into the front yard and mounted her pink bicycle, pedaling out slowly at first until she was a few houses down the street.

"Okay, Tamatoa", said Sharon. "We're in the clear now."

Baby Tamatoa peeked his beady little eyes out from Sharon's pocket and gazed at everything in sight. Houses, cars, trees, people, and the big city they were heading towards. Sharon sped up her pedaling a bit, but took caution as they rode through the city of Wellington. Tall buildings, skyscrapers, museums, theaters, restaurants, city buses, art facilities. Everything about the city fascinated the baby blue crab, as he took in every sight and sound from the safely of Sharon's pocket. His human owner rode out through an open public area and came to a stop in front of the chain link fence surrounding the lagoon that led out to Wellington Harbor.

"Look at it, Tamatoa", Sharon exclaimed.

The baby blue crab climbed out of her pocket and onto her left shoulder. Once his bright blue eyes fell upon the glittering lagoon of seawater that led far out into the ocean, baby Tamatoa's mouth dropped open in amazement. "Wow!" He exclaimed.

The baby blue crab looked to his left and saw a familiar-looking boy running over to an old rundown building near the piers.

Baby Tamatoa glared at him before tapping onto Sharon's shoulder. "What's _he_ doing over there?"

Sharon glanced over and saw the boy was none other than Daniel.

"What's Daniel going into the abandoned warehouse for?" Sharon asked herself, as they watched him running into the old building by ducking under a piece of plank wood that half-blocked a big hole in the wall.

"I don't know", said baby Tamatoa, shaking his head. He looked at Sharon and said to her, "Come on. Let's find out."

Sharon peddled over to the abandoned warehouse and parked her bicycle just a few feet away from the decrepit building. She dismounted and walked over to the hole, staring up at it for a full minute, before she looked at baby Tamatoa and explained to him in a whispered voice, "This place used to be a working-class assembly line years and years ago, but then part of the building caught fire in 1957 and they had to shut it down. People think it's haunted."

"Well, I'm not afraid", baby Tamatoa whispered. "Let's go inside."

Sharon worked up her courage and pulled onto the straps of her overalls, before she ducked and entered the warehouse. She walked over to the middle of the building, but there was no sign of Daniel anywhere.

"Where did he go?" Baby Tamatoa asked her.

"I don't know", said Sharon, looking around the room. The place was empty and dingy, and smelled strongly of musty air. Half the windows were broken and there were partial burn marks on the walls. Beams of wood that had fallen from the ceiling had left a gaping hole in the roof. A stack of blue steal barrels that were piled on one side of the room caught the baby blue crab's attention.

"What's that?" Said baby Tamatoa.

Sharon's eyes wondered over to the far end of the room where the barrels were. She walked over to them and saw a red-orange sign on one of them, with a symbol of a black skull with crossbones. She placed her hand on the barrel and squinted her eyes, as she tried to pronounce the writing on the label, "...Caution...bio-hazard...chemicals."

"What does that mean?" Baby Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon gave him a nervous look, as she grabbed the baby blue crab off her shoulder and stuck him back into her front pocket. "I think it means we should get out of here", said Sharon, as she started to back away.

Just as she was about to turn around, Sharon felt herself bump into somebody behind her, as they grabbed her by her arms, making her scream.

"He told you, didn't he?" Said a boy's voice. It was Daniel.

Sharon struggled to break free and begged him, "Let me go!"

"I told Bret not to tell anyone. And now thanks to you, they're gonna separated us and put us into different homes!"

"Your Daddy was doing bad things to you", Sharon tried to explain. "I thought you and Bret were going to die, so I felt I had to do something. Please let me go!"

Daniel released one of Sharon's arm and reached into her pocket, grabbing baby Tamatoa before throwing Sharon onto the ground. He raised an eyebrow at the baby blue crab, who tried to break free from his tight grip, but to no success. He was trapped!

"I don't know what everybody sees in you", said Daniel to baby Tamatoa. "To me, you're just a stupid, ugly, little drab crab."

With that said, Daniel walked over to the barrels and stepped onto a wooden box.

"What are you doing?!" Sharon asked him, worriedly.

Daniel pulled open the lid to one of the barrels and raised his hand holding baby Tamatoa over it. "You took my family away from me", he said. "Now I'm gonna take away yours!"

Before he knew it, baby Tamatoa felt himself free from the human boy's hand, only to find that he was now falling into a batch of chemicals!

"NO!" Sharon screamed.

Baby Tamatoa could not even begin to describe what was happening to him. All he knew was that the cloudy green liquid he had fallen into felt like it was burning his entire body. He couldn't breathe and his eyes stung terribly. He tried swimming up to the surface, but his tiny pincers were useless and each movement he made caused a sheering pain that rippled right through his delicate self. Baby Tamatoa could see a bright light above him, as well as the shadowy face of Daniel. Unable to hold onto his strength any longer, the baby blue crab almost decided to give up and allow himself to drown, until a dark figure replaced the face of Daniel above him and reached a pale hand into the batch, grabbing him and pulling him out. Baby Tamatoa gasped for breath and coughed up a mouthful of toxic sludge, as he felt a hand gently stroke his back and heard the voice of Sharon speak to him.

"Are you okay, Tamatoa!?"

The baby blue crab coughed again and said in a weak voice, "I...I think so."

"Let's get out of here!" Said Sharon. What the half-conscious baby Tamatoa didn't know was that Sharon had knocked Daniel onto the floor. Just as she was about ready to make for the exist, Sharon heard Daniel screaming and soon found herself being tackled by him, as she fell face down onto the floor. Unfortunately, this meant that she accidentally let go baby Tamatoa, who rolled across the floor and fell out of an open window!

"TAMATOA!"

Sharon hit Daniel in the face with her elbow and managed to roll him off of her, before she rushed outside quickly.

Baby Tamatoa would have fallen to his death had his seashell not protected him. Unfortunately, the poor baby blue crab felt himself pop out of his shell once his body hit the wooden surface of the pier and he fell unconscious into the ocean water below.

Sharon rushed on down to the pier and began searching frantically for her baby blue crab. "Tamatoa! Tamatoa, where are you?" She looked up and down, desperately hoping to find him still alive, but all Sharon could find of baby Tamatoa was his seashell.

Sharon dropped to her knees and felt her eyes fill with tears, as she carefully picked up the precious shell in her hands and looked at it, not believing that he was gone.

"No...NO! Tamatoa..."

Holding the seashell close to her chest, Sharon collapsed onto the pier and began to cry, weeping over the loss of her pet coconut crab, her beloved baby Tamatoa.

Daniel peaked out of the warehouse with a cut on his lip and looked down at Sharon down on the pier. He heard sirens and looked over, only to see a police car heading towards his direction. He knew child protective services were still looking for him and started to running away again.

Poor Sharon laid there on the pier for hours, sobbing. By the time her mother found her, it was nearly sunset.

"Sharon!" Her mother ran onto the pier and picked up her daughter into her arms, asking her, "Sharon, what happened?"

"Tamatoa's gone, Mommy! He's really gone!"

Sharon buried her face into her mother's chest, crying her eyes out over the loss of her best friend.


	8. Chapter 8

When baby Tamatoa regained consciousness a few hours later, nighttime had already fallen. He groaned and rubbed his head, as he tried standing up on his little legs. Though his body ached all over, the water had rejuvenated him of the burning sensation that had teared through him earlier. The baby coconut crab looked above him and saw the shimmering reflection of the moonlight glistening high above the water, as well as the pier he had fallen off of.

"Sharon?" Baby Tamatoa called out. Nobody answered him back.

The baby blue crab looked around him and saw nothing but sand and open water.

"Sharon! Sharon, where are you? Sharon!"

Baby Tamatoa sniffled and felt the tears from his eyes merging with the ocean, as he whispered softly, "Sharon, I'm scared."

The poor baby coconut crab covered his face with his pincers and started to cry his eyes out. He had no idea where he was or how to find his way back home. And worst of all, not only had he just lost his beautiful shell, but Sharon, as well. Without her, he was nothing.

Baby Tamatoa wiped away the tears from his eyes and turned back to look at the open ocean. It made him nervous to think what those strange waters held out there for him, but he knew that if he was going to survive on his own, poor baby Tamatoa had to be brave now. With no other choice, the baby blue crab wrapped his pincers around his shivering little body and slowly made his way out to sea.

For days, baby Tamatoa wondered the ocean floor, traveling further and further away from home. He took temporary shelter under carol reefs and in small caves, and fed off of algae from whatever rocks he could find. Once in awhile, the baby blue crab would come across a school of fish, but most of them just ignored him and called him a bottom feeder. At night, the soothing sounds of the whales singing would ease him and put little baby Tamatoa to sleep, sending him off to dreamland, where he often thought about Sharon.

Weeks past and the poor baby coconut crab kept wondering aimlessly. One day, he spotted a soft purple light far off in the distance and hoped that whoever lived there would kindly offer him permanent shelter.

Once he finally reached his destination, baby Tamatoa found himself standing in front of a ginormous glowing dome, almost like a bubble. Placing his pincers onto the transparent surface, the baby coconut crab could tell there was an undersea environment inside, inhabited by the most exotic and ferocious monsters he had ever seen. Though not his idea of home, it was better than nothing. Wondering how he was ever going to get in, baby Tamatoa suddenly felt himself fall right through the bubble and landed onto the sandy floor of the dome. It wasn't until he stood back up on his legs that baby Tamatoa realized he was no longer in the water, but now inside a massive air pocket. He heard a low growling sound in the distance and looked to his left, only to see a massive pair of jagged dorsal fins that belonged on the back of an unseen creature that was heading out of the bubble and into the sea.

The baby blue crab gulped and walked a bit into the aquatic zone, looking all around him at the demonic beings that lingered about in the environment. He stopped for a minute when heard someone laughing and looked to his right, but all he could see was a friendly-looking, black anemone-like creature.

"Hello", said baby Tamatoa. "W-who are you?"

The black anemone slowly walked over to him, as it sprouted four arms and lit up with purple markings all over its body. It opened its mouth, showing a display of razor sharp teeth. The poor baby coconut crab screamed and covered himself with his pincers, thinking the monster was going to eat him, but luckily for baby Tamatoa, the black anemone monster was soon swept away by a long tongue that belonged to a giant yellow eel-like monster hanging from a nearby cliff. Before the anemone could be eaten by the eel, a plant-like monster on an opposite cliff gobbled up the two.

Baby Tamatoa squealed in fright and ran away from the sight. He hid himself behind a rock and breathed heavily, wondering what kind of place this was. It was unlike any place he had ever seen before. Like an underwater version of Hell. Baby Tamatoa looked around him and saw an opening to a cave that was shaped into a colossal seashell at least a hundred times bigger than he was. He figured this was the best place to take sanctuary and entered the tunnel into the grotto. Once inside, the baby coconut crab saw that the cave was abundant in space, with patches of glowing algae scattered throughout the room. A beam of moonlight shined down from the top of the grotto, providing baby Tamatoa with the only source of light he would ever have from now on. As he stared up at the light, thinking he would never see the surface world ever again, baby Tamatoa laid down on the ocean floor, sniffling. "Sharon", he whimpered. The poor baby coconut crab folded his pincers and cried softly, wishing he was back home with Sharon, the only human who ever loved him.


	9. Chapter 9

**16 YEARS LATER**

22-year-old Sharon never thought herself the beautiful type. Fair-skinned with shoulder-length golden-yellow hair and light brown eyes behind black-rimmed glasses more than made up for a pretty face such as hers. Staring at the mirror in the bathroom, all Sharon could see was a girl trapped inside a young woman's body. In her youth, she was always fond of wearing overalls and princess dresses, but ever since puberty hit, her sense of fashion had changed to wearing a green tank top that exposed her midriff, along with tight black leather pants and flat shoes the color of burnt orange. Around her neck was a black string that held a glittering seashell she had carried around since childhood, a painful reminder of the loss of her beloved pet.

 _How the eff did I come to this?_ Sharon thought to herself. _I used to be so young, so innocent. Now look at me! A year ago, I had it going on. I had a good man in my life, but that didn't turn out so good like I'd hoped, did it? Now look at me. I'm just this fat, ugly, insecure thing_.

Walking back into the room, Sharon glanced over at the digital clock sitting on the dresser. _6:39 a.m._ , it read. The cruise ship for New Zealand didn't leave until 9:00. Sharon thought about calling her mother and letting her know that she was coming home early, but then she decided, _I don't have to tell her anything. I'm my own woman now. I can do whatever the hell I want_.

After packing her bag and checking out of the hotel, Sharon took a bus down to the docks and waited for the cruise ship to arrive. As she stood there waiting, Sharon picked up the seashell around her neck and looked at it in her hand, seeing it sparkle in the sunlight like a golden coin. _Oh, h_ _ow I wish you were still here, little guy_ , Sharon thought to herself, thinking back to a simpler time when it was just her and her baby coconut crab, Tamatoa. Despite how her mother kept telling her that he was dead and that Sharon should move on with her life, the stubborn blonde refused to give up or even believe such a thing. A blast from a ship's horn made Sharon look up and she saw a white vessel approaching the docks. After spending the last five days in California, she was ready to go back home.

As soon as the ship docked, Sharon went straight to her cabin and threw her bag at the foot of the bed, before plopping herself down onto the mattress. She laid there for a few minutes staring blankly up at the ceiling, before reaching over and picking up a magazine on marine life. After reading an article on dolphins, Sharon threw the magazine aside and took off her glasses, setting them down on the nightstand. She put her hands behind her head and ran the events of the last few days through her mind. She had explained to her mother that she needed to go away for a few days to rethink her life, but Sharon really wanted to just get away from her. Before leaving, Sharon had entrusted her friend, Bret, to check on her mother everyday while she was out of town. When she told him her reasons for doing so, Bret told her not to worry and that he would be happy to do so. She didn't know it, but Bret secretly had a crush on her ever since they were children. Seeing how she practically saved him from the abuse of his father, Bret would have done anything for Sharon, even if she didn't return his feelings. Ever since she had lost Tamatoa, Sharon had been getting into all sorts of trouble that she hardly wanted to do anything with her life. Things eventually got better for her once she found love three years ago, but then a terrible thing happened.

Sharon envisioned herself lying on a beach wearing a hot pink bikini, resting her head on the hairy chest of a man in black swim trunks lying next to her. He had short black hair, a square jaw, and wore black-rimmed glasses just like hers. Sharon looked up at him and trailed her index and middle finger along one of his dark sideburns, while the man took hold of her wrist.

"I miss you, Sharon", said the man. He spoke with a New Zealand accent.

"I miss you too, Tom", said Sharon.

Tom rolled himself on top of Sharon and leaned in towards her, planting a soft kiss onto her lips. Sharon pulled him close to her, soft moans escaping from her throat, as Tom caressed her leg and worked his way up towards her thigh.

" _Sharon_ ", called out a childlike voice in the distance.

Sharon broke away from the kiss and said to Tom, "Wait! Did you hear that?"

"What?"

They both listened, but apparently, only Sharon could hear the voice.

" _Sharon!_ " Came the voice again.

"Tamatoa?!"

Sharon immediately shoved Tom off of her and ran out towards the water. A strong wind started to pick up and the clouds turned black, as the waves came up to her ankles.

" _Shaaarooon!_ "

"Tamatoa? Where are you!?"

Lightening flashed across the sky and the winds grew stronger, as Sharon searched out to where the voice was coming from. She turned around to look back at Tom, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Tom! Thomas, where are you?!"

A roaring sound made Sharon turned around and look back up at the clouds, as a pair of demonic red eyes and glowing green hands with long, sharp nails appeared out of the sky and reached right for her. Sharon tried to run away, but instead fell into the water and screamed as she felt herself being lifted into the air by an unseen figure.

Sharon woke up screaming and sat up at once. Breathing heavily, she looked around her, but couldn't see anything. Reaching over for her glasses, Sharon used her hands to find the nightstand and put them on immediately. She found that she was still in her cabin and that it all had just been a dream. Putting her face into her hands, Sharon sniffled and tried her best not to cry, rubbing her arms for comfort. It had been so long since she heard little baby Tamatoa's voice, she wished she could see him one last time, just to know that he was all right.

Feeling the need for some air, Sharon walked out of her room and down the hallway. Turning the corner, she came to a door that led out to the deck and stepped outside.

Nighttime had already fallen. By morning, she would be back home.

Sharon rested her arms on the railing and looked down into the deep ocean below her, wondering if her baby coconut crab was still alive out there or if he was now a little singing angel in Heaven above. Sharon gazed up into the starry sky, its regal splendor reminding her of how much baby Tamatoa used to love shiny things, even the stars. She grasped her right hand around the seashell hanging from her neck and closed her eyes, a single tear falling from one of them. "Please be okay, Tamatoa", Sharon whispered. Opening her eyes again, Sharon looked back at the ocean and saw a bright, silvery-blue light was shining over the water. She blinked in confusion and looked up at the sky, but there was no moon out. Sharon looked back at the water again and stepped onto the lower bar of the railing. Leaning over the edge to get a closer look, Sharon saw that the light was actually coming from _beneath_ the water! She squinted her eyes and wondered what it could have been. A swarm of jellyfish? Unfortunately, Sharon didn't have time to process it, as she accidentally leaned over a bit to far and lost her balance, causing herself to fall overboard into the ocean.


	10. Chapter 10

Opening her eyes, Sharon saw a bright light glistening above her, as if she were looking up from the bottom of the ocean. She blinked and groaned when she tried sitting up, and felt something slimy covering her body. She looked at her arm and saw that it was covered in some sort of bioluminescent green paint.

"Ugh! What the..."

Sharon looked down at herself and found she was lying in what could only be described as a patch of glowing algae. She looked up again and realized she must have been in an underwater grotto of some kind, but it didn't make any sense to her. She had just fallen into the sea and should have drown, yet it felt like she was in a cave full of dry air. Was she dead?

Sharon started to get scared and wondered exactly where she was. A quick glance to the right and the frightened young woman caught sight of something shiny out of the corner of her eye. She stood up on her feet and tried wiping some of the algae off her arms, before she raised her head and gave herself a wide-eyed look. Sharon slowly looked over to her right and gasped in amazement when she saw a humongous pile of gold sitting in the middle of the grotto. Blinking a few times before slowly approaching the massive heap of wealth, Sharon saw not only was there gold, but also trinkets, goblets, jewels, and all other kinds of treasure she had only dreamed off. She reached out a hand to touch some of it, but then pulled herself away in hesitation. Sharon looked over her left shoulder to see if anybody was watching, before proceeding to climb on top of the mountain of gold.

Once she stood at the top of the pile, Sharon dropped to her knees and cupped her hands into the sea of treasure, picking up a handful of golden spiral seashells and diamonds, eyeing the precious valuables with curiosity and wonderment. Sharon let the items slip through her fingers as she looked to her right and reached over for a silver tiara. Holding it in her hands, Sharon could see her reflection of perplexity in the little pink diamonds.

"What is this place?" Sharon asked herself.

Suddenly, and without warning, Sharon soon found herself being lifted into the air by the back of her tank top. She dropped the crown and let out a yell of surprise, as she looked up and saw a huge claw was swinging her around the mountain of treasure, which seemed to be rising up from the ocean floor. Sharon heard a sinister laugh fill the lair and looked right in front of her, only to see a gigantic pair of pink and purple antennas rising up from underneath the treasure, followed by a pair of huge eyeballs that appeared onto the face of what looked like a giant crab!

Sharon's mouth hung open in horror and her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. Never before had she ever seen anything so ugly, so hideous, and so fearsome in her entire life.

"Well, well, well", said the monstrous crab with a smile, showing half of his teeth covered in barnacles. "What do we have here?"

Sharon let out a blood-curdling scream and threw her arms across her face, shielding her eyes away from the sight of the beastly sea creature.

"Ooh, hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo", the crab laughed menacingly. "Let's see. It's a shiny, glittery- Wait a minute. This is just a human covered in bioluminescent algae! What are you doing down here in the Realm of Monsters?"

Sharon lowered her arms and forced herself to look upon his face. She did not want to look at his monstrous form, but out of fear that the giant crab might possibly kill her, Sharon gazed into his murderous eyes and tried opening her mouth to speak. "I...I-I...I-I-I-I..." Before she knew it, Sharon's eyes rolled into the back of her skull and her body fell limp.

The gargantuan crab gave her a calculating look and brought his right claw to lift her chin up to get a better look at her face. Whether she was dead or just plain unconscious, he couldn't tell. _Probably couldn't handle how fabulous I am_ , the giant crustacean thought to himself. Not everyone could be born as beautiful and talented as he was.

"You're a funny-looking thing, aren't you?" He said out loud. Pulling his claw away, he let the human girl's head hang low and caught a glimpse of something shiny hanging from around her neck. The gargantuan crab gave a surprised gasp when he saw it was a tiny white seashell covered in pearls and golden swirly designs.

All of a sudden, his vision turned dark and hazy, as the gargantuan crab flashed back to a little baby blue crab wearing a shell that looked just like the one the human was wearing. The baby blue crab turned around and jumped into the hands of a young girl with short yellow hair that shined like gold. She gave the baby crab a kiss and said to him, " _'I love you, Tamatoa'_." The flashback ended and the gargantuan crab saw the human hanging from his claw was still unresponsive.

The giant crab brought his claw back to lift her head up again and carefully examined the young lady's face. Flawless skin? Short golden-yellow hair? Black-rimmed glasses? She looked almost identical to the little girl he had been seeing in his dreams! Was it possible that she was the one?

"You can't be", said the giant crab, shaking his head in disbelief. Suddenly, the monstrous crab came up with a very dark and very cruel idea. He gave the unconscious Sharon a menacing look and spoke to her in a dark tone, "But if you are..."

Storming out of his lair, the gargantuan crab emerged from the entrance of his home and headed towards a field of geysers, the other monsters cowering in fear before him. Raising his claw holding Sharon above the bubbling geyser below, the giant crab released her and stepped back right away, as a massive stream of bubbles soon burst out of the geyser and sent Sharon back out into the sea.

"Let's see how long you can last in the ocean alone before dying, human", said the monster crab, without so much as a hint of remorse for his actions.


	11. Chapter 11

Sharon woke up the next morning to the sound of seagulls and the hot sun beaming down on her face. Shielding her eyes with her hand, she sat up at once and felt a blanket fall off her shoulders. Looking around her, she soon found out that she was now lying in a boat, surrounded completely by open water.

"Awake at last, huh?" Said a gruff voice.

Sharon turned her head straight and saw an old man sitting across from her. He was dressed in a red shirt with a greenish-gray jacket and beige-colored pants with old shoes. He had gray hair underneath his fishing cap.

"Where am I?" Sharon asked him.

"We're just off the coast of Wellington", said the old man, unscrewing the cap from a drinking container and pouring some soup into a cup. "I found you floating on a piece of driftwood. Here, drink this."

Sharon took the cup from him, but didn't drink anything. She eyed this strange man, whoever he was, and tried to process the events of what happened last night.

"What's your name?" He asked her.

"Sharon." Her answer sounded more like a question. "What's yours?"

"John." The old man answered. "So where were ya heading?"

"I was suppose to be an a ship heading back home to New Zealand."

"You're a kiwi?"

"You might say that." Sharon paused for a minute to take a drink. "Are you?"

"No, I'm from New York", said John. "I moved out here to New Zealand a couple of years ago."

Sharon blinked a few times, before turning her head left and looking down at the water. _What happened to me last night?_ Sharon thought to herself. _I should have drown, but I didn't. Did someone save me?_ So many questions went through her mind, especially that part about the giant crab. That monster looked so real to Sharon. He could have swallowed her whole, and yet he didn't. Gazing into the deep blue ocean waters, Sharon grabbed onto the seashell that hanged from around her neck and began to lean over the side a bit, wondering if he was real or not.

"Did you loose something?" John asked her.

Sharon brought her attention back to reality and looked at him. "What?...No, I just thought I saw something, that's all."

"Like what?"

Sharon looked uncertain. She set the cup aside and asked John, "Do you believe in monsters? Say...a giant crab?"

"Well, some people believe in mermaids, some people believe in the Loch Ness Monster", said John. "Personally, I believe that if you can see it, then you know for a fact that it's real."

This wasn't the answer Sharon was looking for. And now she began to wonder if what she had seen was real or just a dream.

"Look, you've obviously been out in the sun too long", said John, standing up. "I think it's best if I take you back to shore."

As he climbed up to the helm, Sharon stood up and looked over the side of the boat, where the city of Wellington awaited her in the distance.

Once they reached the pier, Sharon turned to John and said to him, "Thank you so much for saving me, John."

"Don't mention it, Little Godiva", said John, shaking her hand. "You take care of yourself now, ya hear?"

"I will", said Sharon.

Once she got off his boat, John made his way back out to sea.

Sharon stood there for a minute and noticed a spot on her glasses. She took them off and wiped them with the bottom of her tank top, but when she turned around and was about to put them back on, Sharon felt herself bump into someone, accidentally dropping her glasses in the process.

"Oh, I'm sorry", said a man's voice.

Sharon crouched down and started using her hands to search the pier for her glasses.

"Here", said the man, taking hold of her hand and putting her glasses into it.

"Oh, thank you so much", said Sharon with relief, putting her glasses back on. "For a minute there, I almost thought I-"

Sharon stopped herself mid sentence when her vision became clear and found herself face to face with a man in his mid 20's with a scar on his lip. His piercing blue eyes making her heart skip a beat, penetrating her with fear, but also filling her face with disappointment.

"Hello, Daniel", she said in a monotone voice.

"Sharon?"

"Who else would I be? Charlize Theron?" Sharon stood up and was about to walk away, until Daniel suddenly grabbed her by her left arm.

"Hold on!"

Sharon looked at him with disdain and Daniel released her at once.

"Listen, I'm throwing a little get together this Friday at the Queens Wharf Ballroom", said Daniel. "You're welcome to come if you'd like. All our old friends are going to be there: Gene, Carrie, Kenny, Alan, Nancy, David-"

"Your friends are not my friends!" Sharon told him. "Besides, after what _you_ did years ago, I wouldn't even attend the same funeral as you."

"You're still mad at me about what I did to your crab?" Daniel asked her. "I was just a boy, Sharon. I was upset."

"Oh, and _I_ wasn't?"

"I'm not the boy I used to be, Sharon", said Daniel. "Ever since they took me and Bret away from our father, I've made a life for myself. I graduated high school, I went to university, and now look at me. I'm executive manager at the Majestic Centre. I've changed, Sharon."

"Well, good for you", said Sharon with bitterness. With that said, she turned around and walked away for good.

"You can't hold onto anger forever, Sharon!" Daniel called out to her.

After finding the cruise ship and reclaiming her luggage, Sharon took a cab and returned back home. Walking up to the house, she knocked on the door and was greeted by a young man with curly black hair, dark eyes, and a beard. He looked just about her age.

"Hey! Look who's here!" He called over his shoulder.

"Hi, Bret." Sharon dropped her bag and threw her arms around his neck.

Bret hugged her back in return and said to her, "It's good to have you back, Sharon. How was California?"

Sharon looked at Bret and said to him, "Boring." She leaned in towards his ear and whispered, "I wouldn't recommend visiting Disneyland anytime soon."

"Well, here. Let me get that for you." Bret picked up Sharon's bag and led her into the house, where an old woman with grey hair stood up from a chair and walked over to hug her.

"Welcome home, baby."

"Thanks, Mom."

Bret set Sharon's bag down next to the couch and said to her, "Hey, Sharon. I know you just got back home, but if you're not busy tomorrow, I was wondering if I could take you out to lunch?"

"Well, I'm kind of busy tomorrow", said Sharon. "How does Thursday sound?"

"Thursday sounds great. Works for me."

"Okay. See you later, Bret."

"Bye-bye, Sharon."

Closing the door behind him, Sharon's mother looked at her daughter strangely and said to her, "What do you have going on tomorrow?"

Sharon looked at her mother and said, "I just told him that to get him out of the house."

"Well, that wasn't very polite", said Sharon's mother.

"Mom, I'll apologize to him later, but right now there's something very important I need to tell you."

With that said, Sharon sat her mother down on the couch and explained to her, "Mom, last night I had a dream about being stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere, but when I woke up, I went out onto the deck and accidentally fell overboard the ship. I thought for sure I was going to die, but then God came to me as a giant crab and sent this little old man as my rescuer."

There was an awkward bit of silence for a moment, before Sharon's mother put a hand to her face and groaned softly, "Sharon, please. Don't start this again."

Just as her mother stood up and walked away from her, Sharon stood up and fallowed her mother into the kitchen. "No, I mean it! At first, I didn't know what it meant, but now it all makes perfect sense. It occurred to me that a part of my subconscious mind unlocked all my memories of Tamatoa and transformed him in my dreams into this hundred story tall crab monster. Oh, Mom, you should have seen it. It was like I was in this underwater sea cave, only I wasn't even _in_ the water. Does that even makes sense? I don't know, but I don't care. You know why? Because if what I saw what happened was real, that means Tamatoa is still alive!"

Sharon's hyperactive words of excitement were cut off, as her mother turned around and slapped her right across the face. Sharon gasped and put a hand to her face, looking at her mother with hurt and shock.

Her mother looked at her with immediate regret and placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "Sharon, please", said her mother, desperately. "That was sixteen years ago. Ever since you lost Tamatoa that day at the pier, I've tried everything I can to get your mind off of him: singing contests, art schools, ballet. Nothing worked. Did you think I liked visiting my teenage daughter in a youth detention center? You need to move on with your life and make something of it."

As her mother released her, Sharon looked at her for a minute, before remarking in a dry tone, "Well, Mom, I would have had a life had _you_ not interfered. Okay? I would have been married about a year ago at this point, but then God decided he hated me."

"Don't you dare use those words against me", Sharon's mother warned her. "You know I didn't want you hanging around with that boy. He wasn't good enough for you."

"See? That exactly why I left home in the first place!" Sharon yelled at her. "You're always bringing Tom down every time I mention his name. You never let me live my life the way _I_ wanted! Tom was my choice, Mom. Not yours! I had one goal last year, but that didn't work out for me, did it? Now I have no job, no money, and no future."

With that said, Sharon stormed back into the living room and picked up her bag, throwing it over her shoulder before heading down the hallway to her bedroom.

Sharon's mother stood at the entrance to the hallway and called out to her, "Even if Thomas were alive, you'd still have one!"

Just as she opened the door to her bedroom, Sharon felt a stabbing pain in her heart. Did her own mother really just say that? The way she mentioned that name and said those words made her whole body numb with grief and anger. Sharon closed her eyes, gripping the handle tightly, before she entered her room and slammed the door shut behind her.

Tossing her bag onto the mattress, Sharon walked over and sat down on the side of her bed, sighing deeply. _So much for coming home to a loving family_ , she thought to herself. But who was she kidding? This wasn't a home. It was a prison cell!

Looking over at her nightstand, Sharon reached over and pressed the _Play_ button on her CD player, filling the room with the poetically beautiful, but melancholy voice of Emilie Autumn.

 _"Under the arches of moonlight and sky/Suddenly easy to contemplate why, why/Why life a life/That's painted with pity and sadness and strife/Why dream a dream/That's tainted with trouble and less than it seems/Why bother bothering/Just for another poem or sad song to sing/Why live a life?/Why live a life?"_

Sharon looked to her left and pulled her bag closer to her. Looking through it, she pulled out an envelope and opened it, pulling out a few hundred dollar bills and stuffing them into her pocket. The rest of the three-thousand dollar fortunate was to go to another cause, but it would have to wait until tonight.

After her mother fell asleep, Sharon went into the garage and switched on the light. Right in the middle of the room stood something covered by a sheet. Sharon walked over to it and pulled back the sheet, only to reveal a Harley-Davidson FLSTF Fat Boy motorcycle. With its handsome leather seat and shiny chrome frame, it truly was a prize to beheld. Covering the handlebars was a black leather jacket with an embalm of a blue crab sown onto the back of it. Sharon eyed the image of the crustacean that was obviously meant to represent her little baby Tamatoa, before picking up the jacket and putting it on.

Opening up the garage door, Sharon straddled herself onto the leather seat, turned on the engine, and roved out quietly into the street, the garage door closing behind her. Sharon only got a block away from her house, when she stopped in front of somebody else's home and opened up their mail box, slipping the envelope full of money into it before riding out towards the city.

Cruising through town, Sharon made a quick stop at a floral shop and went inside to purchase something. When she came out and straddled herself back onto her motorcycle, Sharon heard a voice call out to her.

"Yo, Shari!"

Sharon turned her head left and saw a gang of cool-looking black men standing across the street, hanging around a beat up old car while the blasphemous noise of rap music played over the radio.

"Hey, Little Momma, wanna come hang out with the big boys?"

"Yeah, we gonna party all night long!"

"Come on, baby! You know you wanna!"

One of them, obviously the leader, took a step forward and called out to her, "What do you say, Sharon? You and me gonna go nightclubbing on the dance floor tonight?"

Sharon knew who the black leader was, but didn't answer him right away. Instead, she looked forward and saw a traffic light ahead of her turn green, before she glanced back over and said to him, "Thanks, Joaquin, but I don't party with a bunch of wild animals."

Stepping onto the gas, Sharon roved her engine loud and made off like lightening.

As she rode out towards an open public area near Wellington Harbor, Sharon came to a stop in front of a chain link fence surrounding the lagoon and dismounted from her motorcycle before heading over to the docks. Passing the old abandoned warehouse, Sharon quickly glanced up at the place where she last saw her baby coconut crab and kept on walking down to the pier, putting her hands into her pockets.

Ever since the day she lost baby Tamatoa, Sharon went down to the pier every year and stood there for hours, wishing one day that he would turn up again. Sixteen years she did this. Hoping, praying to see him once more, even if it was just to say she was sorry.

Sharon only stood there for a few minutes that night, looking out towards the water, but the only thing she saw was the neon reflection of the city lights on the far other side of the harbor. She was on a mission tonight, which meant she couldn't stay long. She didn't _want_ to stay long. If anything, she'd rather be with her little Tamatoa, wherever he was. Almost everyone she knew in her life had told her she was crazy, and if that was true, then Sharon no longer wished to be part of their world. She'd rather be dead.

"If you're out there, Tamatoa, you better tell me now!" Sharon called out. No one answered back. "Because if you're not..." Sharon looked down and opened up her right hand, revealing the cream-colored spiral shell with pearls and gold glitter glue designs. The only thing she had left to remind her of her best friend. A memory as beautiful as love and as painful as a broken heart. Sharon felt tears swelling up in her eyes and looked out towards the sea. "I have to move on", she whispered to herself. With nothing else left to say, Sharon hurled her arm and tossed the seashell far out into the ocean, a place she now considered a grave to the baby coconut crab she loved so much. Sharon stood there for a full minute, before leaving with a heavy heart.

Sharon made one last stop at the Wellington Botanic Garden and walked quietly along the path, until she came to the middle of an open area near a pond. She reached inside of her jacket and pulled out a single peach rose before lying it at the foot of a streetlamp.

Under the cover of darkness, Sharon rode far out into the night, past the city limits and onto the highway, going as far away as she could until she had reached just a little past the outskirts of the woods. Coming to her destination, Sharon came to a stop and dismounted from her motorcycle, lying it up against a tree. Putting her back up against the same tree, Sharon slid down and sat on the forest floor, reflecting on what she had done and what she was about to do. Nobody knew where she was and she doubted anyone would miss her, but either way, her mind was made up.

Reaching inside of her jacket, Sharon pulled out a picture of herself sitting in the arms of a young man about a year older than her. He had black hair, a square jaw, wore black-rimmed glasses, a corduroy jacket and blue jeans. She and the man looked so happy together, that Sharon wished she could go back to being like that again, but without Tom or baby Tamatoa in her life anymore, Sharon knew there was only one way of escaping her misery for good. Lying the picture on her lap, Sharon reached behind her and pulled something out of her back pocket. It was a knife!

Seeing her reflection in the blade, Sharon blinked and looked down at the photo again, hoping to take her mind off of her fear. Tears filled her eyes, as Sharon pressed just the tip of the knife onto her wrist. A lump started to develop in her throat and Sharon suddenly felt the urge to resist harming herself. She tried focusing on the smiling face of her once beloved Tom, but this only made her face go red and hot from the intensity of the situation.

 _Just a few minutes of pain and it'll all go away_ , Sharon thought to herself. _It will all be over soon._

Sharon closed her eyes and looked away, turning the blade and holding the knife horizontally cross her wrist. Trying hard not to let a sob escape from her lips, Sharon felt something wet roll down her face. Her hands were shaking, the knife urging at the risk to gnaw its blade into her flesh.

Feeling she was going to be sick to her stomach, Sharon broke down in tears and threw the knife far away from her. "I can't do it", she whispered to herself. More tears escaped from her eyes, as she put her face into her hands and whispered softly, "I'm sorry, Tom...Please forgive me." Feeling the energy draining from her body, Sharon collapsed into a ball on the forest floor, crying softly until her tears put her to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

When daylight came, Sharon woke up and found herself curled up on the forest floor. She sat up slowly and rubbed the back of her neck, groaning at the feeling of an uncomfortable kink underneath her skin. Sleeping in a leather jacket was not a good idea.

Sharon felt something clutched in her other hand and looked down, only to see it was the picture of her and Tom. She looked at her beloved boyfriend in the photograph and let out a sad sigh, as she gently stroked a finger down along his image.

"I miss you, Tom", Sharon said to him. "I wish you were still here with me."

Sharon often wondered if Tom could even hear her or not. She wondered if he was alone or if he was in pain or whether he missed her, too. She had hopes and dreams about starting a life with him, possibly even raising a family one day, but now it was never to be. As much as she wanted to be with him, Sharon knew deep down in her heart that Tom wouldn't want her to give up on life. _Don't be afraid, Sharon_ , Tom had said to her with his dying. _I will always be with you_.

"But we'll see each other again one day", said Sharon. "I'll see you later, Tom. I promise." With that said , Sharon kissed the photograph and tucked it safely inside of her jacket. She wiped away the tears that were beginning to escape from her eyes and let out a shaky breath to get control of her emotions. Standing up on wobbly legs, Sharon leaned against the tree for support and looked to her left, only to discover her motorcycle was gone.

Sharon slowly began to back away and felt herself bump into something. She turned around quickly, only to see a gigantic crablike leg. Slowly, she looked up with wide eyes and found herself staring up at the monstrous crab being she encountered in the ocean the other night.

Sharon gasped in fright and fell backwards, breathing heavily as she scooted away from him until her back met with a tree trunk.

The gargantuan crab didn't move or say a word, but stared at her for the longest time, looking at her with innocent blue eyes. Sharon hated to admit it, but even though she was afraid of him, there was a certain familiar charm to the ugliness of his face that made her feel a twinge of sympathy for him.

"Please", said Sharon, a hint of fear in her voice. "Don't hurt me."

The gigantic crab squinted his eyes in anger and raised a giant claw above her.

"No!" Sharon threw her arms over her head, expecting him to crush her.

"Why would I hurt you?" The giant crab said to her. "I just came back to give you this."

Sharon heard a soft thud and lowered her arms, only to find a cream-colored seashell covered in pearls and gold glitter designs lying on the ground in front of her. She picked it up and eyed it for a minute, before she turned her attention back up to the giant crab.

"I don't understand", said Sharon.

"What's not to understand, Sharon?" The giant crab asked her. "I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it?"

Sharon blinked at him, surprised. "Wait a minute. What did you call me?"

"I called you Sharon. That's your name, isn't it?"

"How do you know my name?"

"I know more than that", said the gargantuan crab. "I know you used to have a little coconut crab who worshiped a human named David Bowie. You made that seashell for him years ago when he was only a baby. You were just a child yourself then."

Sharon couldn't believe what she was hearing. How it was possible this gigantic crustacean knew all those things about her past, she didn't know. She looked at the shell in her hand again and saw that it was the very same one she had tossed into the harbor last night. All of a sudden, Sharon began to wonder. She looked up at the gargantuan crab again and looked into his eyes. She hadn't seen it before, but there was something very familiar about them. Not only were they blue, but the left eye was completely dilated!

"Tamatoa?" Sharon asked him.

The gargantuan crab smiled at the mention of that name.

Sharon slowly stood up as she kept her gaze on the giant crab, who looked at her worriedly when he saw tears starting to fall from her eyes. It was in that moment that Sharon realized who he was. He couldn't have been her little baby coconut crab, but he was!

"Tamatoa!" Sharon ran over and hugged his front right leg, smiling through her tears. Tamatoa was somewhat taken aback by this, but smiled nonetheless and carefully stroked her back with one of his giant claws.

"Oh, Tamatoa. I thought you were dead", said Sharon, sniffling.

"It's all right, Sharon", said Tamatoa. "I'm back now."

Neither one of them spoke for a minute, until Sharon opened her eyes and said to herself, "Wait a minute." She pulled herself away from Tamatoa and shouted, "Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it!" Looking up at him again, Sharon carefully examined Tamatoa with her eyes and asked him, "How did you get so big?"

"You don't remember what happened?" Tamatoa asked her, giving her a calculating look.

"How do I know? I was only a little kid!" Sharon remarked.

"Well, you can thank your little friend for dumping me into that barrel of hazardous splooge, otherwise I wouldn't be this big", said Tamatoa.

"Hazardous splooge? I don't rememb-" Sharon paused and got a sudden look on her face. "Wait a minute...You mean Daniel?...At the warehouse?..." Sharon gasped and whispered under her breath, "Biohazard chemicals", before she fell backwards again and landed on her backside, a dumbfounded look on her face.

"Hey, luckily for me, I didn't die", said Tamatoa, as he brought the tip of his claw to Sharon's chin and lifted her head up to look upon his grinning face. "But as the years went by, I became bigger, stronger, and more beautiful by the day. Don't you think so, Sharon?"

Sharon stood up again and said, "Well, yeah. I mean, last time I saw you, you were so tiny and blue. Now look at you!" Sharon placed her hands on his giant claw and said to him, "You're so big and strong. You got more colorful, I see. A bit of pink, a little purple-" A glance to her right made Sharon go pale, as she exclaimed in frightful distress, "Oh my God! What happened to your leg?"

Tamatoa looked underneath himself and took note that Sharon was indicating to the fact that his front left leg was missing. "Oh, that? I lost it in a fight with a giant sea lizard", said Tamatoa, nonchalantly. He looked at Sharon and explained to her, "We were both fighting over a huge diamond when he bit into my leg and ripped it off in the process."

"Well, then grow it back! You're a decapod. You can reproduce another-"

Before she could even finish her sentence, Sharon felt herself being lifted off the ground, as Tamatoa picked her up by the back of her jacket and brought her close to his menacing face.

"Do you have any idea what I would have to do to make that happen?" Tamatoa asked her, his voice low and sinister.

"Well, you'd have to give up a few of your treasures, possibly your entire shell, but hey, after your leg grows back, maybe you could find a bigger...better one...perhaps?" Sharon tried to sound optimistic, but found herself in a state of awkwardness when Tamatoa squinted his eyes at her, giving her something a death glare.

"Tamatoa, why are you looking at me like that?" Sharon asked him, giving him an uncomfortable look.

"Are you just trying to tell me to give up my shell?" Tamatoa's voice now sounded demonic.

"No, no!" Sharon tried to explain. "I not saying you have to. I was just trying to be helpful. You know I would never ask you to change your look or do anything you didn't want to, Tamatoa. I just want you to be happy, that's all."

"In that case..." Tamatoa's expression quickly went from anger to smiling again. "Let's talk about you!"

"Huh?" Sharon asked him, sounding both nervous and confused.

"I mean, what happened to you?" Tamatoa grabbed one of her ankles and extended her leg out, saying, "You got these long legs, which is unusual even for a human like you." Releasing her ankle, Tamatoa moved his claw to play with her shoulder-length golden hair for a bit and said, "Hmm. Your hair's still the same, though you might wanna use a-" Tamatoa suddenly gave her a disgusted look and said, "Wait a minute. What are these bumps on your chest?"

Tamatoa brought a curious claw to Sharon, making contact with one of her breasts. Sharon's eyes widen and her face turned the color of bubblegum. "Hey!" Slapping his claw away, Sharon covered her chest and glared at him.

Suddenly, and without warning, Tamatoa tossed her into the air. Sharon yelled as she felt herself go flying through the air, but not before landing hard onto his back.

"Ouch!" Sharon groaned, sitting up and rubbing her backside.

"Still got that feisty attitude, I see." She heard Tamatoa say.

Sharon looked around and found herself surrounded by a field of shiny treasures on the back of his shell. Gold coins, diamonds, goblets, some silverware, golden seashells, a gold-gilded boat, some giant pearls that were as big as her head, and for some strange reason, an oil lamp.

"Whoa!" Sharon exclaimed. Looking to her right, she saw her motorcycle was lying on its side and said to herself, "So that's where that went!" She stood up and ran over to stand it upright, only to be distracted by a long structure that looked suspiciously like the backbone of some giant creature.

"Uh, Tamatoa, whose spine is this?" Sharon asked him nervously. She turned her head left to look at him, only to let out a yell of surprise when she saw a pair of big blue eyes instead.

Tamatoa popped the rest of his head up and said to her, "What do you think happened to the giant sea lizard?"

"Yikes!" Sharon shrieked, putting her hands to her mouth. As she started to back away, Sharon felt something hit the back of her foot. She turned around to see what it was and found it to be a silver crown encrusted in pink diamonds. Sharon crouched down and picked up the tiara into her hands, eying its regal splendor like she had done back in Tamatoa's grotto. Looking to her right, Sharon picked up a gold plate and held it up, as she placed the crown on her head and gazed upon her reflection in amazement.

While his human owner was lost in a mystic fantasy, Tamatoa looked at Sharon with the same curiosity he had when he was a baby. He remembered back to the times when Sharon would dress up like a fairytale princess and dance around her room with him. Oh, how he wished they could go back to those times. Back to when he was innocent. Back to when he wasn't a monster.

"Hang on!" Sharon set the plate down and removed the crown from her head, before standing up and asking Tamatoa, "How did you know I was here anyway?"

Tamatoa's eyes suddenly became wide with fear. "Uhhh...I can't tell you that", he said, almost meekly.

Sharon blinked and knitted her eyebrows together. "What do you mean you can't?"

"I'm sorry, Sharon, but he told me not to tell you." Tamatoa suddenly put a claw over his mouth, a terrified look on his face.

Sharon raised her eyebrows and said, "Ohhh! So it's a _he_ , is it?"

"Yes, and that's all I'm going to tell you!" Tamatoa looked like he was getting frustrated.

Sharon crossed her arms and gave him a cocky smile. "Okay, Tamatoa. I'll bite. Who is this _he_ you're referring to, hmm? A giant cockatoo?"

Sharon suddenly felt the surface beneath her shift downward and found herself falling backwards off of Tamatoa's shell. She would have fallen to her death or become paralyzed had the gargantuan crab not caught her in his claw.

Tamatoa brought Sharon close to his face and warned her, "Knock it off!" His voice turned deep and monstrous once again.

Frightened, Sharon could only nod in response. She had never seen this side of Tamatoa before. And whatever it was, she didn't like it.

Tamatoa went back to his normal voice and said, "Now come on. We gotta find a place to hide."

As he started to take her deeper into the forest, Sharon tried to free herself from his tight grip, but to no success.

"W-where are you taking me?"

"Trust me", said Tamatoa, a smug look on his face. "I know a place."


	13. Chapter 13

"But I still don't understand something. If you've been alive all this time, how come you never came back?"

"If you spent most of your childhood living in a plastic box inside a little girl's bedroom, would you automatically know the way back home?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon gave him an uncomfortable look and answered, "I suppose not...But let me ask you something..." Sharon paused for a minute, as she tried to loosen herself from Tamatoa's grip. Her efforts were all in vain. "How come I was able to breathe underwater the other night? I was traveling back home on a cruise ship and I went out on the deck for some air. Before I knew it, I accidentally fell into the water and lost consciousness. I woke up and I remembered you asking me what I was doing in the...What did you call it? Relic of Monsters?"

" _Realm_ of Monsters", Tamatoa corrected her. "The only reason you were able to survive is because the Realm is trapped inside a bubble. And what do you mean you _accidentally_ fell into the water?"

"I thought I saw a light or something shining in the water", Sharon explained. "At first, I thought it was the reflection of the moon, but there was no moon out that night. So when I tried getting a closer look, I leaned too far over the rail and lost my footing."

"What color was the light?" Tamatoa asked her. "Silver?"

"Kind of a baby blueish color, but yes."

"You idiot! That was me", said Tamatoa.

"You?" Sharon exclaimed in disbelief. "You have a mountain of gold on the back of your shell. Gold doesn't glow in the dark!"

"Not in broad daylight, it doesn't", said Tamatoa, a confident smirk on his face.

As he came to the end of the trail, Tamatoa stepped out from the trees and into a clearing.

"That doesn't make any sense", said Sharon, paying no attention to where they were or the reason why Tamatoa had stopped. "You're a coconut crab, not a jellyfish. And what do you mean you spent most of your childhood living in a plastic box? I let you wonder around the room, didn't I? And can you please put me down now? I feel like you're crushing my thighs!"

Sharon stopped her ranting for a minute and looked to her right. A few feet away from where they stood was a two story cabin next to a 50x60 foot barn.

"What's that?" Sharon asked him.

"This is it", said Tamatoa, setting her down carefully on the ground.

Sharon took a few steps forward and said to herself, "I didn't know this was here."

"You do now", said Tamatoa, walking past her.

"Hey, wait!" Sharon ran after him and said, "Tamatoa, we can't stay here. What if somebody lives there?"

"Will you stop worrying about everything, Sharon? If anything happens, I can handle it."

"Well, I'm gonna take a look for myself." Sharon ran up to the front porch of the cabin and peeked in through the window. The interior design of the two story complex reminded her of one of those fancy outdoor magazines. A high ceiling, a spiral staircase, luxurious furnishings, a cobblestone fireplace, some rustic antiques here and there. Whoever owned this property must have been an extremely wealthy person, but was said person a greedy old bastard or a kind and compassionate soul?

Sharon shook her head and said, "I didn't know, Tamatoa. Something about this just doesn't seem right."

"What about that?" Tamatoa asked her. Sharon turned around and saw that he was indicating to the barn. "We could always hide in there."

"You want us to spending the rest of ours days hiding inside that nasty old shed?" Sharon asked him.

Tamatoa pushed the barn door open with one of his claws and ducked as he stepped inside. Sharon followed in after him and saw that the barn was just big enough to accommodate his size. Except for a few stacks of hay up in the hayloft, the place looked like it had hardly been used at all.

"Well, it's not my idea of home, but it could be worse", said Tamatoa.

"Ah!" Sharon yelped, putting a hand to her face.

"What?" Tamatoa asked her, sounding annoyed.

"Damn bug just smashed into my glasses!" Sharon took off her glasses and started cleaning them with her tank top, but just when she was about to put them back on, Tamatoa snatched them away from her.

"Hey! Give those back!" Sharon yelled, jumping into the air in desperation. "Give 'em back right now!"

Tamatoa held up the strange thick-rimmed object to one of his eyeballs and said, "Why do you even where these stupid things, Sharon?"

"I need those to see! Now give 'em back, damn it!"

Tamatoa examined them for a minute before handing the glasses back to Sharon. Soon as she put them back on, Sharon glared up angrily at the gargantuan crustacean and warned him, "Tamatoa, if you do that again, I swear to God I'm gonna...I'm gonna..." With no other witty comeback to think of, Sharon decided to kick one of his legs. This turned out to be a bad idea, as it caused her more pain than it did any to him.

"Ow!" Sharon grabbed at her foot, hopping up and down on one leg, before falling flat onto her back.

Tamatoa looked upside down to her point of view, a clear look of annoyance spread across his face, as he asked her in a deadpan voice, "Are you through being a freak yet?"

"No", said Sharon, disappointingly. She sat up and sighed deeply, as Tamatoa settled himself right next to her. "I don't understand you, Tamatoa. When you were young, you were so curious, so sensitive. Now you're-"

"Beautiful?" Said Tamatoa with pride.

Sharon gave him an annoyed look and said, "Not exactly the word I was looking for, but strange, mysterious, and egotistical comes to mind." Standing up, Sharon walked away from Tamatoa and started tapping her fingers onto her forehead, as she muttered to herself, "Okay, I need to think this over. On the positive side: my pet coconut crab is not dead. On the negative side: he's a giant that I now have to hide from everybody, because it's more than likely that marine biologists and scientists will want to come looking for him and possibly dissect his brains out or something. Should I tell Mom? No! I can't tell Mom. She'll wig out on me. Should I talk to Dwayne about- No! I can't get the authorities into this one. I gotta-"

While Sharon continued to talk to herself, Tamatoa sensed that something was wrong through his antennas, as they started to pick up a vibration in the distance, causing them to flick slightly.

"And I can't tell Bret either, because I know for a fact that even though he's my best friend, even _he_ wouldn't believe me! Oh, Tom, if only you were here right now. You'd know what to do about this. You always had the answer to everything."

"Sharon, be quiet for a minute", Tamatoa said to her.

Sharon turned around and looked up at him.

Tamatoa listened closely, his antennas flickering again.

Sharon ran over to the barn door and peeked her head out a bit, only to see a pair of headlights coming out from the trees and heading towards their direction. Sharon gasped and turned to Tamatoa, whispering, "Someone's coming!"

Tamatoa stood up and backed away just a bit, a look of fright easily reflected upon his face.

Sharon looked back at the approaching vehicle and saw a 1985 harvest gold Plymouth Fury pull up to the cabin. She hid herself behind the barn door and watched secretly as the owner of the vehicle got out of the car and removed his fishing hat, sighing disappointingly.

Much to her surprise, Sharon recognized the face of the old man with gray hair, as he walked around his car and opened the trunk, muttering to himself about not catching any fish.

"Hey, I know him!" Sharon said with a smile. She ran out of the barn and called out, "John!"

The old man turned around and said, "Ah! Little Godiva! What are you doing here?"

"Believe it or not, I came out here looking for you", said Sharon. "I was just thinking to myself: I have this really big problem and I don't know what to do about it. So I thought who better to help me out than my new friend John."

"Hmm, interesting", said John, nodding his head. "How did you find me?"

Sharon frowned and tried to think of something. "Uh...I found your name in the phone book", she lied.

"Oh! Well, that would explain it", John accepted. "Well, come on in. Let's talk. Oh, uh, help me carry this stuff in, would you?"

"Sure." Sharon took a bucket and a grocery bag from him, while John pulled out a fishing rod and a tackle box.

"Did you go fishing this morning?" Sharon asked him, as they walked up to the front door. She looked back at the barn and winked at Tamatoa, who had peeked out a curious eyeball from within.

"Yeah, not much catch today", said John, paying no attention as he unlocked the door and stepped inside. Sharon followed John into his home and shut the door behind them.

"Here, I'll take that", said John, taking the bucket from Sharon. "You can just set that on the island over there."

"Okay." Sharon went into the kitchen and set the grocery bag on the counter, while John put his fishing gear, hat, and jacket into a closet. He walked into the kitchen and asked her, "Now can I offer you a drink? Tea? A wine cooler?"

"Just water, please", said Sharon, politely.

"All right. Well, feel free to look around and I'll be right with you in a minute."

As John started putting things away, Sharon looked lazily around the living room and walked over to on old record player. She picked up an album sleeve with an image of Nat King Cole on it and set it back down before turning her attention over to a row of pictures that stood on the mantel over the fireplace. Upon closer inspection, Sharon saw that most of the pictures were in black and white, but the one photo that caught her attention was a colored picture of what appeared to be a young John wearing a tuxedo while holding a redheaded woman wearing a wedding dress in his arms.

"Here you are."

Sharon turned around and saw John holding a glass of water in one hand and a wine cooler in the other.

"Thank you." Sharon took the glass from him and took a sip. Turning her attention back to the mantel, Sharon picked up the picture she was looking at and asked him, "Hey, John? Who's this lady?"

John took the photo from her and said, "That was my wife, Denise."

"She's pretty", Sharon admitted.

"Yeah, she was", said John, smiling.

"Did you ever have any kids?" Sharon asked him.

John sighed sadly and said, "No...but I wanted them."

Sharon lowered her eyes and said, "I'm sorry."

"Ah, it's not your fault", said John, setting the picture back on the mantel. "It just didn't work out between us. So, what's your trouble?"

"What?...Oh, yeah! Well..." Walking past John, Sharon traced a finger around the brim of her glass and said, "You see, I have this friend who has no where to go and I was wondering if he might be able stay here for a few days, just until I get things sorted out."

John turned around and asked her, "Why? Is he in trouble or something?"

"Well, it seems we found ourselves in a bit of a conundrum, yes", said Sharon. She turned around to look at John and said, "I'd take him home with me, but I..."

Sharon stopped herself when she saw that John's eyes had gone wide with fright and the hand holding his drink was shaking violently.

"What's wrong?" Sharon asked him.

John moved his lips, but no sound came out. From the look of it, Sharon could have sworn she saw his mouth forming the words, "Don't...move..."

Sharon turned around and looked out the window, only to see Tamatoa was standing out in the open, the Plymouth dangling from his massive claw as he examined it.

"Oh, no!" Sharon groaned, dropping her glass and running out the front door. She stood on the front porch and watched as Tamatoa placed the vehicle onto the back of his golden shell.

"Hey!" Sharon called out to him. She ran over to Tamatoa and said to him, "What the heck are you doing?!"

"Collecting", said Tamatoa. "It's not real gold, but it's got a nice shine to it."

"You can't take an old man's car!" Sharon objected. "That's illegal!"

"Oh, yeah?" Said Tamatoa. "And what are you going to do about it?"

Suddenly, a gunshot was heard. Sharon screamed and covered her ears, her body tensing up. She turned around and saw John standing on the porch holding a rifle in his hands. He had just fired a shot into the air as a warning to the giant crab that was standing on his property. He cocked the weapon again and pointed it right at Tamatoa.

"Sharon, get away from him!" John said to her.

Sharon waved her arms and said, "No, John! You don't understand!"

Sensing that Sharon was in danger, Tamatoa snarled, as he reached his right claw over and grabbed hold of the rifle, tossing both the weapon and the old man into the air. The enraged crustacean captured John in his claw, while the rifle landed on the ground. Tamatoa responded by stomping onto the weapon, destroying it.

"Ohhh!" John gasped. "Please. Take the car. Take whatever you want. Just don't kill me."

Tamatoa gave John a fear-striking death glare and spoke to him in a deep, monstrous voice, "If you ever threaten her like that again, I _will_ kill you."

Suddenly, the gargantuan crab felt a rock hit the left side of his face.

"Hmm?" Tamatoa turned his head left and saw a furious Sharon looking like she was ready to kill him.

"PUT HIM DOWN NOW!" She shouted.

Tamatoa kept timid eyes on Sharon, as he carefully set John safely back on the ground.

"Okay", said Sharon, trying to speak calmly. "I don't know how it happened, but after our little encounter in the ocean, I fainted, right? _Somehow_ , this guy found me and plucked me out of the ocean. So technically, I owe him my life. And if I owe him _my_ life, _you_ owe him yours. So what do you have to say for yourself, young man?"

Being scolded by Sharon made Tamatoa feel like a child again. Despite his genuine love for her, there were often times where Sharon would act more like a substitute mother to him. Although he was older and at least forty times bigger than her now, the gargantuan crustacean could not bring upon himself to argue with her.

Tamatoa rubbed the back of his neck nervously and said, "Yeeaah, about that...That was my fault."

Sharon paused for a minute and raised a suspicious eyebrow at him. "What?"

"I wasn't sure if it was really you or not, so I put you on a geyser and launched you back out into the ocean to die", Tamatoa admitted. "I didn't think anything of it at first, but then a voice spoke to me and told me to follow it."

Sharon nodded her head and said, "Oh, I see. So if an old friend literally drops into your home, you just send them flying onto a geyser and leave them to drown?" Sharon cocked an eyebrow and asked him in a sarcastic tone, "Tell me, Tamatoa. What do you do for an encore? Tell an orphan you're sorry after you kill their parents and eat their flesh?"

"You started it!" Tamatoa argued.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were the one who abandoned me and left me to drown first!"

"What was I suppose to do? Reach into the water and grab you at the bottom of the harbor? I didn't even know how to swim back then!"

"Hold it!" John yelled at them, giving them a "time out" signal.

Both Sharon and Tamatoa looked at him.

John looked at Sharon and asked her, "This isn't the monster crab you were telling me about the other day, is it?"

Sharon rubbed her arm nervously and said, "Yes."

John looked at Tamatoa and asked him, "You wouldn't happen to know any Leviathans, would you?"

"Why the heck would I be interested in a Leviathan?" Tamatoa asked him.

John looked back at Sharon and asked her, "Is he for real?"

"If you can see him and you can believe him, he is", Sharon answered, echoing back his words that he spoke to her when they first met.

"Well, I see him, but..." John turned his attention back up at Tamatoa. "...I just don't believe it."

"Well, like I said: I'd take him home with me, but because he's so big, I...Well...I was hoping you could help us."

John looked back at Sharon and saw the sad, desperate look in her eyes. It only took him a millisecond to understand what was going on, and right away, John's eyes grew as big as silver dollars. "Oh, no!" He said. "No, no, no, no, no! This is your problem. You deal with it alone!" John turned away from Sharon and marched straight up to his house, saying, "I'm not getting involved in this mess. I've seen those Lifetime movies. This is not gonna end well!" And this that, John stepped into his cabin and shut the door behind him.

Sharon turned around and eyed Tamatoa annoyingly. "Thanks a lot, Spider-Man. You scared him off."

"I told you, Sharon: I can handle this", Tamatoa reassured.

Sharon snorted a laugh and asked him, "How? We had one chance of finding you a place to stay and now it's gone. How else am I suppose to convince this guy?"

Tamatoa put a big, strong arm around Sharon's body and pulled her closer to him. "Here's the deal, sweet cakes..." The gargantuan crab whispered something into her ear. Sharon looked at him and said, "You want me to do what?" Tamatoa whispered into her ear again, making Sharon's eyes go wide. She looked at Tamatoa and asked him, "Can you do that?"

"Does a sponge reproduce by budding?" Tamatoa asked her, grinning seductively.

"Uhhh..."

"Well, then go in there and talk some sense into him." Tamatoa picked Sharon up into his claw and set her down on the porch.

Sharon opened the door and walked into the living room, where John was standing next to the fireplace, one hand resting on the mantel.

Sharon walked over to him and said, "Come on, John. Please? It's only for a few days. Just until I find somewhere else for him to go."

John turned around and said to her, "Sharon, do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?"

"Yes", Sharon professed. "Whatever the consequences are, I will accept them. Whatever the damages, I can pay for them."

"I'm not asking you to pay anything", said John. "Sharon, this is something far beyond your control. I understand you have a deep passion for this animal, but there is no way you can hide a fifty foot killer crab like this for so long."

Sharon took great offense to that. She crossed her arms and warned John, "I _can_ have him tear the roof off the house."

"And what is that suppose to mean?" John asked her.

Not a moment too soon, the entire cabin shook and rumbled, as the roof was lifted up, revealing the confident face of the gargantuan crab.

Sharon's arms dropped to her sides and her mouth hung open in horror. She didn't think Tamatoa would actually do it, but he did.

John, however, looked at Sharon with angry eyes and pointed a finger at her. "You have one day", he said.

Sharon looked at John and asked him, "What?"

"You heard what I said!" John warned her. "I'm giving you 24 hours. Whether you find somewhere else for the monster crab man to go, I don't care. I don't take kindly to people who threaten or assault me. You don't find a solution to your problem by sunset tomorrow, I'll have the authorities come down here and arrest your ass."

Sharon looked up at Tamatoa with fear and concern. The last thing she wanted was to have her beloved coconut crab taken away from her again. Or to be taken away from him in return.

"Oh, come now, John", said Tamatoa. "Surely we can work something out. What if I were to give you a piece of advice?"

"What advice?" John asked him. "If I wanted any advice, I'd asked a smarter animal, like an elephant."

"Oh, but you can't catch fish with a piece of ivory now, can you?"

John raised a curious eyebrow and asked him, "What are you saying?"

"Let me answer you that question with a question", said Tamatoa, as he picked up a coin from off of his shell and looked at it. "You wouldn't happen to have a large supply of fish on standby, would you?"

"What for?"

"How else am I suppose to eat?"

"Well, there's a river not too far from here that leads straight to the ocean", said John. "But good luck catching anything in those waters. I've been trying to catch fish in that river for the past two years. Every time I want a silver tuna, I have to go to the supermarket or the harbor just to catch one."

"What you lack is the regal splendor to acquire such a feat", said Tamatoa. "I'd bet you were a real looker back in your days, weren't you, Johnny Boy?"

"Tamatoa!" Sharon exclaimed in embarrassment.

"Hold on, Sharon." John said to her. "I want to hear this. Are you saying you can grant me eternal youth or something?"

"No", said Tamatoa. "But I can make my staying here worth your while."

The gargantuan crab dropped the coin he was holding into the cabin and John caught it in his hands. The old man looked at Sharon for a brief second before he carefully examined the coin and said to himself, "This is real gold." John looked up at Tamatoa and asked him, "How did you account for this?"

"Oh, please", said Tamatoa, quite modestly. "That was merely a trifle I picked up on the way over here. I'll never even miss it."

Sharon gave him a confused look and whispered, "What?"

"I'll make a deal with you", said Tamatoa. "You give Sharon three days to figure out a plan, and even if she doesn't find a solution to her little problem, I get to stay here still, but for every day I stay here, I pay you a single gold doubloon for your troubles."

"I want twenty-five", said John.

"Two", said Tamatoa.

"Twenty."

"Three."

"Fifteen."

"Five doubloons and I give you back your car", Tamatoa added.

John pointed a finger at the giant crab and said to him, "You got a deal."

"Done", said Tamatoa, smiling triumphantly before shutting the roof back into place.

John looked at his newly-acquired coin again and laughed to himself. "Boy, he may be a crab, but if he makes one hell of a businessman."

Sharon looked at John and asked him, "You're not gonna call the cops on us?"

John looked at her and said, "I was just kidding about that authorities stuff."

Sharon crossed her arms and said, "It didn't sound like you were."

"Hey, as long as he doesn't rip my arms off, he can stay", said John. "It's nothing personal. I just don't like to be manhandled, that's all."

"So he can stay here?"

"I just said he could, didn't I?"

"John, I don't know what to say."

"Well, you can start by saying thank you."

Sharon smiled as she threw her arms around John's neck, hugging him tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you", Sharon squealed with delight.

"All right, all right", said John, trying to push her off of him. "Don't get all mushy on me."

Just as Tamatoa set the Plymouth down next to the barn, Sharon came running out of the cabin and stood in front of the giant coconut crab.

"How did you do that?" Sharon asked him, shocked but amazed.

"Sharon, if there's anything these humans love more than flattery, it's money", said Tamatoa.

Sharon laughed and said, "Great! Well, now that that's settled, you just stay here, keep out of sight, and I'll be back first thing in the morning."

Tamatoa blinked and said, "Wait a minute. You can't leave me here alone."

"Tamatoa, I have to go home", Sharon told him. "Mom's probably wondering where the heck I am, so I have to go home and let her know I'm still alive and that I didn't fall off a cliff or anything."

Tamatoa put a claw to his face and said, "Augh! You're still living with that harridan?" He sounded annoyed.

"Unfortunately, yes", Sharon answered, lowering her eyes and rubbing her arm in embarrassment.

"You know, Sharon, you outta find yourself a good man", said Tamatoa.

Sharon glared up at him and said, "Can I have my motorcycle back, please?"

"You promise you'll come back?" Tamatoa asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Cross my heart, hope to die. If I lie, may I end up in a shark pie", Sharon recited.

Tamatoa looked at her for a minute before giving her back her motorcycle. While Sharon checked it over for any scratches, Tamatoa looked to his right and saw that it was nearly sunset. It would be getting dark any moment now and he would soon undergo a physical transformation that would alter his appearance greatly.

Tamatoa looked back at the golden-hair human and said, "Hey, Sharon?"

Sharon looked up at him. "Yes?"

Tamatoa brought a claw to her and gently stroked her head. "I really missed you", he said.

Sharon smiled softly and hugged his massive claw. "I missed you too, Tamatoa", she said. And with that, Sharon mounted herself onto her motorcycle and turned it on. She looked back at Tamatoa one more time and said, "I'll be back first thing in the morning. That's a promise."

Before Tamatoa could say another word, Sharon rode off into the forest and disappeared from sight.


	14. Chapter 14

Back at Sharon's house, her mother started to get worried. She was just on the phone talking with someone, when all of a sudden, a familiar, but cheerful voice burst through the door and started singing.

 _"Yesterday I heard a lover sigh/Goodbye/Oh me, oh my/Seven times he got aboard his train..."_

"Never mind, Mr. Merrick", said Sharon's mother. "She's back...Yes...Yes, thank you so much. Good night."

While Sharon was in the kitchen fixing herself a sandwich, her mother walked over to her and said, "Oh, Sharon, I was so worried about you! Are you okay?"

Sharon looked at her mother, grinning like an idiot. "Okay? OKAY!? Oh, Mom, I've never felt better in my whole life!" She grabbed her mother by the shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. "You know what? You were right." Sharon turned around and opened the fridge. She poured herself a glass of milk, as she said to her mother, "Just because Tom isn't here with me anymore, doesn't mean I should stop caring about my future, right? I mean, who knows? Maybe I'll find somebody just like him, maybe even better."

"Sharon, forget what I said about Thomas", her mother pleaded. "I know how much you loved him, but, dear, I just didn't want you to go through the same thing I did with your father. I only wanted you to be happy."

Sharon picked up her supper, before she looked back at her mother and said with a smile, "I am happy, Mom. Good night!"

Walking past her mother, Sharon started singing again and headed towards her bedroom, leaving her mother baffled.

The next morning, after a quick shower and some muesli, Sharon threw on her leather jacket and said to her mother, "Well, Mom, I'm heading out now."

"All right, dear", said her mother. "Tell Bret I said hello to him, will you, Sharon?"

Sharon paused at the door and looked back at her mother, confused. "Bret?"

"Yes, dear. Remember? He said he would take you out for lunch on Thursday", her mother informed her. "That's today."

Sharon paused for a minute and said with an awkward smile, "Yes! That just what I was about to do. You know, go spend the day with Bret. Oh, and if you don't hear from me tonight, I'm staying at a friend's house."

"But, Sharon-"

"Bye!"

Before her mother could stay another word, Sharon had gone out the door.

As she rode her motorcycle through the streets of the city, Sharon muttered to herself, "Great. Just great! This is just perfect, isn't it? Had I known I was going to meet Tamatoa yesterday, I never would have agreed to this stupid lunch date." She came to a stop at a traffic light and said, "What am I saying? He's a big boy now. He can take care of himself, right?...I hope."

Sharon hated the thought of leaving Tamatoa alone all day, but she knew that if she did not show up, Bret would soon start asking questions and that was the last thing she needed right now.

It didn't take long for Sharon to find him, as she found Bret sitting at a table outside a restaurant.

"Anyone I know?" Sharon said to him.

Bret looked over and smiled, waving his arm at her. "Hey!"

Sharon dismounted from her motorcycle and walked over to him.

"I hope you don't mind, but I order us a couple of Kiwi Burgers", Bret said to her.

"Cool", said Sharon, taking a seat opposite of him. "So, how's work at the Blue Whale?"

Bret shrugged his shoulders and said, "Boring. How you been?"

Sharon shrugged her shoulders and said, "Eh, can't complain. Life is good."

A waitress soon brought them their food. While the two of them sat their enjoying their meal, Sharon asked Bret what he had been up to recently.

"I mean, you've been a busboy for what, two months now?"

"Four", Bret corrected her. "I've been working odd jobs for the past two years."

"You know, you outta get out of town sometime, Bret", Sharon encouraged him. "Get out of New Zealand, travel the world-"

"With what money?" Bret asked her. "I'm still trying to save for my college fund."

"Just don't go to the one your brother went to", Sharon told him. She picked up her drink and looked to her right, as she said to herself, "If Tamatoa were here right now, I'd have him go Gamera on his ass."

While Sharon took a sip from her soda, Bret gave her a suspicious look and asked her, "You okay, Sharon?"

"Yeah, why?" Sharon asked him.

"Well, it's just that ever since Tom died, you've been acting a little weird", Bret told her.

Sharon looked at him and asked, "What do you mean?"

"I just feel like I don't see you around anymore", said Bret. "I'm afraid I'm gonna turn on the news one of these day and hear you were found dead in an alley with knife in your hand."

Sharon leaned in close to his face and said in low voice, "Let's get one thing straight here, Bret: I am _not_ suicidal. I'm perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with me. So, _please_ don't judge me."

Bret pulled out a envelope from his pocket and said, "Then how come my foster parents found this in the mail yesterday?"

Sharon said nothing for a minute and just stared at him. She saw there was no use hiding from Bret and let out a sigh, before asking him, "Okay. You know that highway that leads to the forest next to the mountains?"

"Yeah."

"Well, yesterday I went down there to try and clear my head, when..."

Sharon stopped herself when she saw Bret was looking over her left shoulder. She turned around and saw Joaquin and his gang standing just a few feet away from them. Whether he was mad or annoyed, she couldn't tell.

Sharon looked back at Bret and said, "Let me handle this." She got up from her seat and went over to confront Joaquin, asking him, "Can I help you?"

Joaquin looked at one of his boys before punching Sharon right in the face.

"Hey!" Bret just got to his feet when Sharon held up a hand and told him calmly, "No, no. It's all right."

"Thanks, but I don't party with white girls no more", Joaquin said to her.

"Look, if this is about last night-"

"Oh, it ain't just that", said Joaquin. "I'm still mad about what you and your boyfriend did to me last year."

"What are you talking about?" Bret asked him.

"Two days before he died, Tom and I went to a nightclub", Sharon explained. "Joaquin just so happened to be there and he challenged me to a dance off. Tom upped the ante and said whoever lost would have to pay the winner a hundred dollars. Joaquin lost, but when I told him he had to pay, Tom decided to call it off and said it was a draw."

"Yeah, and to me, that's an insult", said Joaquin. "You both practically humiliated me."

Sharon snorted a laugh and said, "Hey, it's not my fault the crowd cheered me on more then you, okay?"

"Yeah? Well if Jerry Lewis and Harry Potter had kid together, your faggoty-ass boyfriend would be the proof of that!" Joaquin insulted.

Sharon's smile disappeared instantly. Tranquil fury started to build up inside of her, as she felt the sudden urge to attack.

"Sharon?" Bret asked her, tapping her on the shoulder.

Sharon turned around slowly and looked at Bret with uncomfortable calm on her face. She put her hands on her hips and said to him, "Bret, I need you to do me one last favor before I die."

"What?" Bret asked her.

Before he could blink, Bret witnessed as Sharon turned around fast and punched Joaquin right in the nose, knocking the black gang leader to the ground.

Sharon then grabbed onto the front of Bret's shirt and said to him, "Run!"

Soon as Sharon and Bret took off, Joaquin's gang helped their leader to his feet, as he said to them, "Let's get 'em!"

Bret and Sharon ran down the sidewalk and turned left into a back alley. They both came across a fence blocking their path and proceeded to climb up, but just when Bret had gotten to the other side and was halfway down the alley, Sharon's jacket got caught on the chain link, trapping her.

Bret turned around and was about to go back for her, when Sharon yelled out, "No, Bret! Just go! Get some help!"

Bret gave her an uncertain look before disappearing from sight.

"You better get back here, girl!" Joaquin shouted.

Sharon turned and saw Joaquin and his gang coming towards her. Desperate to escape, she ripped at her sleeve, cutting the leather material in the process. Once she managed to free herself, Sharon climbed over to the other side of the fence before Joaquin and his gang could lay a finger on her. She took off running again and turned right, running down the sidewalk. Sharon ran across the road and stopped at a corner, grabbing onto a streetlamp. Breathing heavily, Sharon looked back to see if any of them had followed her, but just when she thought she had escaped, Sharon turned around and saw a pair of handcuffs were placed on her wrists by a tall, muscular man wearing sunglasses and a police officer's uniform.

All Sharon could say to herself was, "Oh, fudge."


	15. Chapter 15

Sharon sat in an interrogation room, handcuffs around her wrists, and waited patiently while Bret spoke outside with the officer who arrested her.

" _'Go get help'_ , I said. _'Save yourself'_ , I said. I knew he was going to get the police, but out of all the cops in this city, he just had to run into the _**ONE GUY**_...I really don't want to see at the moment."

A minute later, the door opened. Sharon looked up and saw a towering man of two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of muscle enter the room. He had light brown skin and short black hair. His dark brown eyes were like those of a deer, warm and gentle. His badge read Officer D. Mathews.

"Hello, Dwayne", said Sharon.

Officer Mathews walked over to her and removed a key from his belt, releasing Sharon from her handcuffs. He sat down opposite of her and said, "You're not in trouble, Sharon. I just wanted to talk to you."

"I know I probably shouldn't have punched Joaquin in the face, but he started it", Sharon explained.

"Bret already told me", Dwayne informed her.

Sharon looked towards the door and said, "Oh."

"I heard you just got back a few days ago", said Dwayne.

Sharon shrugged her shoulders and said, "Yeah. So what?"

"You were suppose to check in with me when you got back", said Dwayne.

Sharon looked back at him and said, "What's wrong with me taking a little vacation every now and then?"

"This isn't a game, Sharon", said Dwayne. "I made a promise to your mother that I would watch over you."

"Well, then you can tell my mother that I don't need her anymore", said Sharon. "I'm a grown-ass woman who is more than capable of taking care of herself and I don't need a babysitter."

"I've been looking after you since you were twelve", said Dwayne. "I just don't want to see you go down that same road again."

Sharon turned her head left and looked away from him, disappointment painted her face.

Dwayne took hold of her hands and said to her, "I understand it's been a year, Sharon, but if there was anything I could do to help-"

"You guys never caught Tom's murderer", said Sharon, not looking at him.

"There was no evidence", said Dwayne. "No fingerprints. Nothing. We investigated Joaquin and his men, they had nothing to do with it. Now you're sure there weren't any-"

Sharon looked at him and said, "Dwayne, we've been through this already. Tom never had any enemies. I don't know why this happened, I just-I just..." Sharon lowered her head and put a hand to her face, angry tears running down her cheeks. "I'm trying to move on, Dwayne. Really I am."

Dwayne gave a comforting pat on her shoulder and said, "I know you are, Sharon. If you ever need anybody to talk to, I'm always here. Okay?"

Sharon sniffled and whispered, "Okay."

Dwayne reached over and took a Kleenex from a nearby tissue box. He handed it to Sharon, who used it to dried her eyes and blow her nose.

"Just keep hanging in there, Sharon", Dwayne said to her. "Things will get better. You'll see."

Sharon blew her nose again and nodded her head. "I know", she said. "I know."

"Come on. I'll walk you out."

Back at the cabin, John was busy looking through a microscope at a blood sample he had collected from Tamatoa. The gargantuan crab watched from outside as he looked in on the old man by lifting the roof up again.

John muttered to himself, as he picked up a pen and wrote something down in a notebook.

"Any news?" Tamatoa asked him.

John looked up at him and said, "Well, if Sharon were here, I might be able to answer a few things, but from what I can gather, I'd say your estimate growth is about three feet a year."

Tamatoa blinked and said to himself, "That's it?"

All of a sudden, the giant crustacean turned his head when he heard the sound of a motor roaring in the distance. In no time at all, Sharon appeared and parked herself in front of the barn. She dismounted from her motorcycle and walked up to him, saying, "I am so sorry I'm late."

Tamatoa glared at her, as he slammed the roof down and turned himself to face her. "Where have you been? You said you'd be back in the morning. It's almost sunset."

"I know", said Sharon, feeling guilty. "But Mom reminded me I made this stupid lunch date with Bret. I didn't want to go. Hell, I didn't even like it. To make matters worse, Joaquin's gang showed up and then the cops came and-"

"Who's Bret?"

"You know, the boy with the curly hair I met at school years ago?"

Tamatoa smirked at Sharon and asked her, "Is he your beau?"

"My what?" Sharon asked him, a confused look on her face.

"I said is he your boyfriend?"

"Hell, no!" Sharon protested. "Me in love with Bret is like saying I'm in love with my brother!"

"Sharon!" John stepped off the front porch and walked over to her. "I've got something to show you. Look." John reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny metallic-yellow fishhook.

"A fishhook?" Sharon was unimpressed.

"A solid _gold_ fishhook!" John exclaimed. "I took one of the coins Tamatoa gave me and melted it down to make a hook. According to him, fish are so stupid, they'll chase anything that glitters. You should see my freezer!"

Tamatoa cleared his throat and gave John a warning sort of look.

"Oh, right!" John exclaimed, putting the fishhook back into his pocket. "Sharon, Tamatoa said you had his old seashell. Can I see it?"

"What for?" Sharon asked him.

"I told him he could", said Tamatoa. Sharon looked up at the gargantuan crab with curiosity. "He's been asking me all kinds of questions about myself", Tamatoa bragged, "but I couldn't really explain half of them. So I allowed him to take a drop of my blood, hoping to find some answers." Tamatoa shot his eyes at John and said, "Even if the results _were_ disappointing."

"I said it was an estimate", John defended. "I didn't say it was accurate."

Sharon looked back at John with disbelief and said to him, "You're kidding, right? I mean, what are you? A marine biologist?"

"As a matter of fact, I was", said John.

"Huh." Sharon reached into her pocket and handed John the cream-colored shell. The old man looked it over for a minute, before he looked back at Sharon and asked her, "Did you make this yourself?"

Sharon rubbed the back of her neck and said, "Well, I might have gotten a little excessive with the glitter glue."

"Don't be so modest, Sharon", said Tamatoa, showing off in a vain fashion as he picked a golden platter from off of his shell and admired his reflection. "You knew what you were doing back then. In fact, if it weren't for you, I'd never be as beautiful as I am today." The narcissistic crab set the platter back onto his shell of treasury and looked down at Sharon. "You know, I think you could be just as beautiful as me if you were to wear a fancy necklace or maybe some sparkly earrings."

Sharon turned around and looked up at Tamatoa with a cocky smile. She placed her hands on her hips and said to him, "Really, Tamatoa? I mean, it's cute that you're trying to flatter me and all, but I don't need fancy jewelry to make myself feel good, let alone find a boyfriend."

"Well, with a pretty face like yours, I'm surprised you haven't snatched yourself one already", said Tamatoa, in an arrogant matter.

It was with those words that Sharon's eyes spoke with fuming madness. She gave the gargantuan crab a pissed-off look and turned around, storming away and heading towards the direction of the lake.

Tamatoa blinked in confusion. "Sharon, where are you going? Sharon!"

The golden-haired young woman didn't respond or even look back at him and kept on walking.

"You can't run away from me", Tamatoa scoffed.

Before he knew it, Sharon started running towards the river.

John shrugged his shoulders and said, "Apparently, she can."

"Shut up!" Tamatoa remarked, before walking away and heading over to the river, muttering to himself, "I can't believe she's gonna make me chase after her."

Sharon came to a stop at the riverbank and sat down on a nearby rock, crossing her arms and thinking dark thoughts. In no time at all, she heard Tamatoa approach her, but still she did not look at him and kept her gaze on the mountain on the other side of the river.

"Okay, what do I have to do to get back on your good side?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon turned her head right and made a "time out" signal with her hands. "You really wanna make me happy right now? Either you bring people back from the dead or else you can just sit down, shut up, and leave me alone." With that said, Sharon turned her gaze back straight and pulled her knees up to her chest.

Tamatoa glared at her and gave a low, menacing growl, before he crossed his claws and settled himself down on the riverbank next to Sharon. Neither one of them spoke to each other and just sat there in total silence. Tamatoa opened his mouth to speak to Sharon, but then he remembered she told him to be quiet and decided it was best not to say anything. He sighed to himself and picked a golden trinket from off of his back, examining it to pass the time. Tamatoa heard Sharon sigh sadly to herself and looked down at her. He hadn't see it before, but with her back turned to him, Tamatoa could clearly see there was a image of a blue crab on the back of her black leather jacket.

Placing the shiny object back onto his shell, Tamatoa pointed to the embalm on Sharon's jacket and asked her, "Is that suppose to be me?"

"No, it's James and the Giant Peach", said Sharon, sarcastically. "Who do you think it's suppose to be?"

"I just don't understand why you're getting so snippy at me", said Tamatoa. "All I said was you should find yourself a man."

Sharon stood up on the rock and turned around to face Tamatoa. "Well, what do you want to hear, huh? Do you wanna know what it's like to kiss the frozen dead lips of your one true love before they close the lid on the coffin and bury them into the ground!?"

Tamatoa blinked and just stared at her in shock. He was too stunned for words.

"Yes, there was a man in my life, but he was taken from me", Sharon explained, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "His name was Thomas. I used to call him Tom. We were together for two years. One night, we went for a walk in the park, but then this masked mugger jumped out of nowhere and attacked us. I wasn't hurt, but I was knocked unconscious before I even had a chance to look at his face. When I woke up, the mugger was gone, but Tom had been brutally stabbed and...and..."

Sharon's body started shaking violently. She turned around and sank back down on the rock, lowering her face into her hands and crying softly. She pulled her legs up to her chest and buried her face into her knees, not caring if the gargantuan crab saw her a quivering, sobbing mess.

Tamatoa looked down on his tiny human owner with pity and sorrow. Reaching a claw over to her, Tamatoa carefully stroked the top of her golden head and told her, "Sharon, I didn't know."

Sharon sniffled and wiped away the tears behind her thick-rimmed glasses. "I don't like to talk about it", she said. "Even though I had some of the best times of my life with Tom, it still hurts."

"Did he ever kiss you?"

Sharon nodded her head and said, "Yeah, he always kissed me."

"Did you two do anything other than that?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon turned her head right and glared at him, disapprovingly.

"I didn't mean to pry", said Tamatoa.

Sharon looked away from him and folded her arms across her chest. Tamatoa was afraid he had rubbed too much salt into the wound, until Sharon said to him, "We did it a couple of times." She looked back at the giant crab and said, "But we always used protection. Tom didn't want me to have a baby just yet. I admit, I was scared my first time, but Tom was very gentle with me, the way he touched my face and caressed my arms..." Sharon paused for a minute, a sad, but happy daze upon her fair face. She managed a little chuckled out of herself and said to Tamatoa, "For a couple of virgins, we seemed to know what we were doing."

Tamatoa smiled at Sharon, happy for her.

"Yeah, it was a good life, me and Tom", said Sharon. Her face darkened, however, as she looked away from Tamatoa and said to him, "But the only downside was that Mom didn't approve him. He wasn't a druggie or an alcoholic, but for whatever reason, she didn't like of him. When she found out we were together three months after we began dating, Mom slapped him in the face. I pushed her against the wall and told her I was never coming back. So, I left her house and went to live with Tom in his apartment. It was in the redlight district and it was a bit rundown, but it was still a place of our own. As long as we were together, we were happy."

Tamatoa looked away from Sharon for a minute and focused on his reflection in the river. "Did he ever ask you to marry him?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon looked back at the gargantuan crab and said, "That's the bitch of it. The day Tom asked me to marry him was also the same day he died."

This brought Tamatoa's attention back to Sharon. It was not the answer he was expecting, but it was the one he got.

"Yeah, how's that for irony?" Sharon asked him. "You think you're gonna spend the rest of your life with somebody, but before anything can happen, life just pulls the rug right out from under you." Sharon took a deep breath and shook her head, as she said to Tamatoa, "I never did find out who the killer was."

"Did he leave you with anything?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon nodded her head and said, "He left me with some money he'd stashed away for emergency purposes. That's how I got the motorcycle. The rest I gave away to a friend. Sure, I could have used it to buy or rent a place of my own, but without Tom, I knew I couldn't go back to that apartment alone. Not without him. So, I pretty much went back to living at Mom's house. That was the worst thing I could have done."

Tamatoa said nothing and just stared at her, looking sad. "I wished I could have been there with you", he said.

Sharon ran her fingers through her hair and let out an exaggerated sigh. She looked at Tamatoa and asked him, "So, did you ever meet anyone?"

"Ah, you don't want to hear about that", said Tamatoa, modestly.

"Oh, so you _did_ meet somebody, huh?"

"As a matter of fact, I had about a hundred and six encounters, but they never really meant anything", Tamatoa bragged.

Sharon's jaw dropped open. "That many? Wow, you must have been quite the ladies' man."

"Who said they were only female?" Said Tamatoa, giving her a smug look on his face and winking at her.

Sharon looked away from him and shuddered. She hated to think how Tamatoa would have gotten off with both genders.

For the rest of the evening, Sharon and Tamatoa sat there and watched the golden sun fade off into the distance, changing the sky from vibrant orange to soft lavender.

Just as the sky was turning a perfect sapphire blue, Tamatoa looked down at Sharon and asked her, "Do you remember that nightmare you had when we were children?"

Sharon knitted her eyebrows together in confusion and asked him, "What nightmare?"

Tamatoa stood up and said, "That one time you woke up crying in the middle of the night because you were scared of the dark?"

Sharon stood up from the rock and said, "What are you talking about? I don't recall being scared of the da-"

Just when she turned around to look up at Tamatoa, Sharon's eyes became wide and her mouth dropped open in horror. The color of his skin had turned completely pitch black, while a terrifying bioluminescent mask of neon pink markings colored his face. His antennas were also black, except for the alternating pink lights that rotated every now and then. His legs were painted with tiger stripes of black and blue, and the treasure on his shell had now turned from shiny gold to a bright, silverly-blue. The irises of his eyes had turned an alarming magenta.

"T-T-T-T-Tamatoa...W-W-Wha-What the...F-F-F-F-F-"

"Is that English or are you just happy to see how fabulous I look even in the dark?" Said Tamatoa, winking at her.

Sharon said nothing and just stood there looking at him for a full minute, her right eye twitching.

Tamatoa blinked and looked at her in confusion. "You don't like it?" He asked her.

"No!" Sharon reassured him, faking a smile. "No, no, no! It's not that I don't like it..." Sharon looked up and down at his new glowing form, as her smile slowly started melting away. "Yes, it is..."

Before she could say another word, Sharon's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell to the gravel in a faint.


	16. Chapter 16

Several hours later, Sharon opened her eyes and found her vision was blurry. Her glasses had been taken off, and even though she could not see, she fretted not. She sat up slowly and rubbed the back of her head, moaning, "Ow!...God, what a nightmare."

"What happened? A familiar voice asked her.

"I don't know", said Sharon, rubbing her eyes. She stood up and walked over towards the direction of the voice, saying, "I had this weird dream that Tamatoa came back to life and was turned into a giant, glowing, gold-covered monster cra-AAAHHH!"

Before she could even finish her sentence, Sharon had unknowingly walked off the edge of the hayloft. A giant, glowing claw caught her around her middle before she could hit the ground and lifted her into the air. Sharon held on tightly, despite being safely secured, and tried focusing her vision on a bright, shining form in front of her, but because of her blindness, she could not make it out.

"Careful! You could have hurt yourself!"

"Tamatoa?" Sharon tried reaching a hand out to him and felt nothing but air. "Tamatoa, I can't see you!"

"Hang on, babe."

Before she knew it, Sharon felt her glasses being placed back onto her face. She pushed them up the bridge of her nose and found her vision was clear again, as the gigantic form of Tamatoa appeared before her. Much to her dismay, however, he had presented himself to her in his "other" form.

Sharon gasped in fright and cringed in his grasp.

Tamatoa squinted his eyes in anger and asked her, "You're not going to faint on me again, are you?"

"But how?!" Sharon's voice cracked. "You never used-" She cleared her throat and said to him, "You never used to glow in the dark before!"

"Augh!" Tamatoa rolled his eyes and said, "It's called camouflage. I covered myself in bioluminescent algae, so that even in the dark, I could still be just as shiny and beautiful as I look in the daylight."

Sharon paused for a minute and studied his frightening, yet impressive neon form with skeptical eyes. "Are you sure?" She asked him. "Because you look like something Nikola Tesla invented!"

Tamatoa glared at Sharon, before he set her down on the ground and turned to exist the barn.

"Where are you going?" Sharon asked him.

Tamatoa turned his head to look at her and said, "Outside", as he pushed the door open with his claw, letting the sunlight pour into the barn and revert him back to his original form.

Sharon's eyes suddenly became wide with shock. "Oh, no", she said to herself, before running out of the barn. Tamatoa followed her out, as Sharon looked up towards the clear blue sky and bright yellow sunshine. It was morning! She turned around and asked Tamatoa, "I spent the night here?"

"Yeah. So what?"

Sharon put her face into her hands and groaned in distress. "Why didn't you wake me up, Tamatoa?" She said. Sharon looked up at him and said, "I was suppose to have gone home hours ago!"

"Why? Because you think you need to explain yourself to your mother?" Tamatoa asked her.

"No, I just like to keep in touch with her and let her know I'm still alive", Sharon noted. "And quite frankly, Tamatoa, I don't think that's any of your concern." With that said, Sharon turned around and folded her arms across her chest, as she stuck her nose up in the air, showing that she could be just as snarky as the giant crab.

"Hmm, are you sure you're not using your mother as an excuse to meet up with another pretty boy?" Tamatoa mocked her.

Sharon turned around and looked at him with wide eyes. "Excuse me?" She asked him, sounding offended.

"You're a grown-ass woman and you feel the need to cater to her ever whim, instead of becoming your own person?" Tamatoa asked her. "That makes a lot of sense."

"That's easy for you to say when you're the size of King Kong!" Sharon exclaimed. "What are you getting so upset about anyway?"

"Wake up and smell the strawberry anemone, Sharon! If I was a human and I had a young and handsome face, you'd totally love me", Tamatoa snarked.

"I wouldn't care if your name was Jemaine Clement and you were the leader of a boy band!" Sharon commented.

"Oh, really?" Tamatoa brought his face closer to her and gave her an evil smile. "Did you say that to Tommy's face when you first met him?"

"You're unbelievable!" Sharon said with disgust. "You're behaving just like a-" Sharon stopped herself mid sentence and lowered her face, tightening her lips in an effort not to make a scene.

"A what?" Tamatoa demanded. "Say it!"

"Like a CHILD!" Sharon screamed.

Tamatoa picked Sharon up by the back of her jacket and said to her face, "Well, what do you expect when you're raised by one?! And you know something, Sharon? You're no Ariel either! I mean, what man in their right mind would ever want an ugly, four-eyed, worthless little human like you?"

Sharon gasped and looked at Tamatoa in shock and horror, her eyes filled with hurt. The gargantuan crab showed no remorse, as he set her back down on the ground and glared at her with resent.

"Tamatoa..." Sharon hugged herself and looked up at him with watery eyes, as she asked him, "Is that how you see me?"

The villainous coconut crab said nothing, but turned around and crossed his claws. looking away from her.

Swallowing her emotions, Sharon gave the giant crab a serious death glare, before saying to herself through clenched teeth, "Fine." She walked over to her motorcycle and mounted herself onto it, she looked over her shoulder and said to Tamatoa, "If that's the way you want it, I don't care anymore. All those years I wasted, hoping you'd come back? You're not the little, innocent, coconut crab I remember. You're just another hideous beast! And if you think I'm ugly, I'll just go to a ball tonight with a handsome prince instead of spending the rest of my life with a monster like you!"

With that said, Sharon took off her black leather jacket and threw it on the ground, before she turned on her motorcycle, revved up the engine, and rode off without saying another word.

Once she was back in the city, Sharon rode through the streets of Wellington and parked her motorcycle outside of the Majestic Centre. She walked through the front lobby and over to an elevator, where she stepped inside and pushed a button to take her up to the top floor. Once she reached the 29th floor, Sharon immediately stepped out of the elevator and stormed down the hall, until she turned to a conference room on the left and kicked the door opened. Several men in business suits were all sitting at the table, minus the one man standing next to a chart, the enemy she had sought out to find.

"I need to talk to you", Sharon demanded.

"Sharon, can't this wait. I'm right in the middle of-"

"No, this can't wait!" Sharon protested. She pointed out the door and threatened, "Now you drag your ass out here right now, Daniel Walters, or else I will go apeshit on your employers!"

Daniel looked to his colleges and said in a calm voice, "Excuse me." He walked over to Sharon and grabbed her by her left arm, as he escorted her out into the hall.

"Sharon, what has gotten into you?" Daniel asked her.

"You still having that thing at the Queens Wharf Ballroom tonight?" Sharon asked him, ignoring his question.

"Yeah?"

"Okay then! It's a date!" Sharon proclaimed, hot tears running down her angry face.

Daniel looked at her with confusion and asked her, "Sharon, are you upset?"

Sharon pulled her arm away from him and sniffled, as she wiped the tears from her eyes and said, "No. I'm just having a really shitty morning, that's all."

Daniel nodded his head and said, "All right...Well, I have to get back to my meeting, but I'll tell you what." Daniel took out a business card and handed it to Sharon. "Why don't you give me a call later when you're settled down? Go home, pick yourself out a nice dress-"

Sharon snatched the card from him and said in a monotone voice, "Just don't be late", before she turned around and started heading back towards the elevator.

Daniel stared at Sharon as she left and called out to her, "I'll send a car for you about 8 o'clock!"

After confronting Daniel, Sharon went back down the elevator and thought about what she had just done. She had no idea what she was getting herself into, but out of spiteful bitterness over the hurtful words of Tamatoa, Sharon saw this was as the only way of getting back at him for stabbing her in the heart. _Be who you are on the inside_ , she always taught him. Whatever happened to that little baby coconut crab she rescued from a lifetime of loneliness and ridicule had turned out exactly the opposite of everything she had hoped he would never become. If that lesson no longer meant anything to Tamatoa and beauty truly was the only thing he cared about, then Sharon no longer wanted anything to do with him. By asking out the enemy that tore them apart, she was ready to start a new chapter in her life.

With several hours before the dance, Sharon wasted no time in getting herself ready. She stopped at several dress shops and purchased a few beauty products before heading back to her house. Thankfully, her mother was not as furious or upset by her absence last night as she had thought, but when she walked through the door and was confronted by her, Sharon briefly explained to her mother that she had spent the night at a friend's and had a date. Hearing this news made Sharon's mother leap with joy, as she hugged her daughter and said how happy she was for her. Sharon was unmoved by this and rolled her eyes, but hugged her mother back in return.

Later that night, Sharon went into the bathroom and dressed herself in a long silvery gown that exposed her shoulders, along with a pair of sparkly silver heels to match. Around her neck was a diamond and blue sapphire choker necklace that she had purchased at a jewelry store early that evening. She then started to apply her makeup, beginning with black eyeliner and a little rose blush. She applied a thin layer of mauve lipstick and smacked her lips together, before she took a step back and looked at herself in the mirror.

Studying her reflection as if something was missing, Sharon pulled back her shoulder-length golden hair and wondered what to do with it.

"Beautiful."

Sharon turned her head right and saw her mother standing in the doorway. She looked back at her reflection and asked, "Hey, Mom? Do you think I should wear my hair up or what?"

"Oh, let it hang down, Sharon. It looked prettier this way", her mother said.

"I guess", Sharon said to herself, releasing her hair and sighing contently. Her expression was melancholy.

"Sharon, what's wrong?" Her mother asked her.

Sharon shook her head and said, "Nothing." She turned to her mother and said, "I just wish I'd grown up a long time ago."

"Oh, baby." Sharon's mother cupped her daughter's cheek and said to her, "All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. I never should have tried to control your life so much. There's only so much a mother can do to raise her child the way she hopes they will turn out, until the day comes when you have to let them go and let them figure out life on their own. You're our own woman now, Sharon. And no matter how old you are, I will always be proud of you. You've come so far. And I know for sure that you'll continue to go farther in the future."

Sharon smiled and hugged her mother tightly, embracing her in a warm hug. "Thanks, Mom", she whispered.

Suddenly, the front door rang.

Sharon released her mother and said, "Well, that's my ride. You gonna be okay tonight?"

"Now don't worry about anything", her mother reassured her. "You just go and have a good time."

"Okay. I'll try and be home by nine."

"Nine? Hell, come home at 6:30 in the morning if you want to."

While she rode in the back of a limousine on her way to the Queens Wharf Ballroom, Sharon looked out the darkened window and gazed out at the city lights. She sat back and thought about the fight between her and Tamatoa this morning, and wondered if she was making a terrible mistake. After all, all he tried to do was impress her with his bioluminescent powers. Maybe she overreacted. But then Sharon remembered what he said about her being ugly and worthless. If that was how Tamatoa really saw her, then Sharon thought she had given him the appropriate reaction to when she was first reunited with him back in his lair, for he was the sorriest, most ugliest thing she had ever seen. With that in mind, Sharon brushed the thought from her head and allowed herself to carry on with her plan. It was too late to turn back now.

Once the limo had reached its destination, Sharon stepped out and stood in front of the building for a minute, hesitatingly. Swallowing nervously, she slowly approached the door and walked into an elaborate venue of style and class. Three crystal chandeliers hung from the dark ceiling, along with several streams of twinkling white lights that made it look like a nighttime sky. The music playing over the sound system was a beautiful love ballad performed by Boyz 2 Men. One look and Sharon felt as though she were at a school dance or even a wedding. The room was filled with about a hundred people or so, but nobody that she recognized.

"Anyone I know?" Said a familiar voice.

Sharon turned around and saw a clean-shaven Bret wearing a dark blue tux with a black tie standing behind her.

Sharon gave him a bright smile and said "Hi, Bret."

Bret blinked and looked at her in awe. "Sharon? Wow, look at you! You look beautiful. Are you wearing lipstick?"

Sharon nodded her head and said, "It's good to see you, Bret."

Bret paused for a bit, before he shook his head and snapped back into reality. He cleared his throat and tugged at his collar. as he asked Sharon, "So, uh, you here by yourself?"

"No, I'm with Daniel, actually", said Sharon. "Have you seen him?"

"Uh, I think he stepped outside with some of the guys", Bret answered, though it sounded more like a question.

Sharon turned her head left and looked around amongst her peers. Everyone was either talking, dancing, drinking, or simply enjoying each others company. They hardly even noticed her arrival, which made Sharon feel like an outcast. Aside from Bret, Sharon never had any real friends, other than Tamatoa, but to her, that was an entirely different matter now.

"Uh, oh. Trouble coming", Bret said to her.

Sharon turned her head straight and gasped in astonishment, her eyes growing as big as silver dollars. Approaching them was a tall, handsome man dressed in a gorgeous tuxedo with a steel grey bow tie. Bright-eyed with short dark brown hair properly groomed over to one side, Sharon had never seen a more beautiful man in her life.

Daniel walked up to her and said, "Sharon Marie Roberts, you look gorgeous."

Sharon smiled meekly and said to him, "Thank you."

Daniel took hold of her hand and placed a kiss upon it, before he looked into her eyes and said, "The pleasure is mine."

Sharon looked away from him, blushing.

Bret looked back and forth at them, stunned. He turned his attention to Sharon and said to her, "I'm sorry. I thought you hated him."

Sharon looked at him and said, "A girl can change her mind, can't she?" She then turned her attention back to Daniel, leaving Bret at a loss for words.

"Sharon, can I interest you joining me for a glass of champagne?" Daniel asked her, offering her his right arm.

Sharon gladly accepted his arm and said, "I'd love to."

As Daniel led Sharon away, Bret stood there in shock and said to himself, "The frick?"

Daniel walked Sharon over to a table stack with food and drink, and picked up two glasses. He handed one to Sharon and said, "Let us toast. To the start of a new friendship."

"Cheers", Sharon proclaimed, clinking her glass with his, before taking a sip.

Over the next few hours, Daniel introduced Sharon to some of his old friends and talked with her about his job at the Majestic Centre. All the while, Bret watched them from afar, keeping an eye on his older brother and trying to figure out what Sharon was up to. All her life, she had always hated Daniel, and now here she was laughing and talking with him as though there was never a rife between them. Whatever it was, Bret could not help but feel a twinge of jealousy, as he downed his twelfth glass of champagne.

"So, that's my story", Daniel said to Sharon. "By the way, how's that boyfriend of yours? I haven't seen him at the music store in forever."

Sharon's face darkened all of a sudden. She turned to Daniel and asked him, "You didn't hear?"

Daniel looked at her with confusion and asked her, "Hear what?"

Sharon lowered her head, a sad look on her face, and said to him, "Thomas died last year, Daniel."

Daniel looked at her with sorrowful eyes and said, "Oh, Sharon. I'm so sorry."

Sharon looked up at him and said, "It's not your fault. Things just happen."

While Daniel stared at her for a moment, a familiar song caught Sharon off guard. A twinkling melody that soon turned into a pop ballad.

 _"There's such a sad love/Deep in your eyes/A kind of pale jewel..."_

"Oh, no", Sharon bemoaned, a look of distress on her face.

"Problem?" Daniel asked her.

"I hate this song", Sharon said to him.

Daniel looked at her weird and said, "You're kidding, right? Everybody loves Bowie."

"Not me!" Sharon barked. She looked away from Daniel and said to herself, "Not anymore."

Daniel raised an eyebrow at her, looking at her suspiciously, before walking over to the sound system.

Sharon held no remorse for raising her voice at him, as she downed the rest of the champagne from her glass and set it aside. She knew the glam rock music of David Bowie had always been a favorite of Tamatoa's, but she did not want to remember anything about the beastly coconut crab on this night.

Just at that moment, the lights dimmed down and the music stopped. A spotlight shined down on Sharon and the music suddenly turned back on, but changed instead to the lovely Michael Bolton's _When a Man Loves a Woman_. Confused, Sharon turned around and saw Daniel walk back over to her, as he extended his right hand out to her and asked her, "May I?"

Sharon felt herself frozen on the spot. She turned her head left and looked at the crowd, who all had their eyes on her and Daniel. She looked back at him and gave him her left hand. while Daniel took a step towards her and reached his other hand behind her back. Sharon placed her right hand upon his left shoulder, before Daniel proceeded to guide her through her steps, slowly waltzing her across the dance floor. The moment was beautiful and surreal, like something out of a fairytale, and Sharon felt herself falling under a familiar spell.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you", Sharon said to him in a low voice.

"You have nothing to be sorry about", Daniel said to her. "It was my curiosity that sparked your painfully memories. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

"I've already forgiven you", said Sharon. "Remember what you said to me about holding onto anger? Well, I've decided to let go of my hatred for you. I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with-"

"That's what I admire about you", said Daniel. "You were always so full of ambition. And to be honest, Sharon, I've always thought you were cute."

Sharon gazed up at him dreamily and asked him, "You really thought that I was cute?"

"I did", Daniel answered, before he leaned in towards her ear and whispered to Sharon, "I still do."

Sharon was silent, as she stared into Daniel's crystal blue eyes, a haziness caving around his image. He pulled her closer to him, as he continued to slowly dance her around across the room. Sharon came to a stop halfway through the end of the song and placed her right hand onto his chest, as Daniel gently caressed a strand of her hair and cupped her right cheek, slowly bringing her face closer to his. Lost in a daydream, Sharon did not protest, until she looked out of the corner of her eye and looked over Daniel's left shoulder. At first, she thought she was dreaming, for she saw in plain view, on the far end of the room, was her dead boyfriend, Tom. He looked at Sharon from a distance, his expression filled with annoyance, disappointment, and resentment.

All at once, Sharon felt a twinge of guilt. Was she actually seeing him there? No, that was impossible! She had watched him die right in front of her eyes. She had witnessed him being buried in the Earth. He had to be dead. Whether he was there in person or in spirit, Sharon had no time to answer, as his body soon vanished into thin air.

"Is something wrong?" Daniel asked her, looking over his shoulder.

Sharon looked back at Daniel, her eyes filled with fear. She slowly started to back away from Daniel, who looked at her with concern and confusion.

"I shouldn't have done this", Sharon said to herself.

Daniel walked over her and placed his hands on her shoulders, as he said to her, "Sharon, you look like you've seen a ghost. What's the matter with you?"

"She's crazy! That's what's the matter with her!"

Sharon turned around and saw it was Bret who had spoken. A half-empty bottle of champagne clutched in his hand.

"I am not crazy!" Sharon protested.

"Oh, yeah? Then how come you're hanging out with him all of a sudden?" Bret asked her, before taking a swing of alcohol.

Sharon snatched the bottle away from Bret and asked him, "You remember Tamatoa, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, believe it or not, he's alive", Sharon confessed. "And not only that, but he literally turned out to be a even bigger jerk than Daniel ever was when he was a boy."

Bret looked at Sharon with half-lidded eyes and drunkenly said to her, "I drink you've had a little too much to think."

Everybody in the crowd started laughing, except for Daniel, who looked at Sharon with uncertain eyes, before he turned to his brother and said, "I think you should go home and sleep it off, Bret."

Bret pushed Daniel to the floor and said to him in an aggressive tone, "Go jump off a cliff, you frickin' snake charmer!"

"Shove off!" Sharon pushed Bret, before he pushed her back and caused her to fall backwards onto a table, which crushed underneath her and covered her in champagne.

The crowd gasped in shock at Bret's behavior.

Daniel stood up and ran over to help her up, but Sharon tore her arm away from him and yelled, "Get off me!"

Sharon stood up and turned to face Bret, but the moment she laid eyes on him, her face turned red and her lips started trembling. A pained gasp escaped her throat, before Sharon ran out of the ballroom, crying.

Daniel slapped Bret in the back of the head and said to him, "What did you do that for, dickweed?"

Sharon ran out of the ballroom and clutched herself onto a streetlamp for support, her body shaking as she failed to conceal her tears. It was bad enough that her pet coconut crab had insulted her earlier, but to have her Cinderella moment shattered by her only human friend was ten times worse. Sharon fell to her knees and lowered her head in humiliation, breathing in the burning fragrance of her champagne-soaked dress.

Daniel ran out of the ballroom and walked over to Sharon, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Sharon, are you okay?

Sharon sobbed harder and avoided his face, as she said to him, "No, I'm not!"

Daniel knelt beside her and placed his left hand under her chin. "Sharon, look at me. Please?"

Sharon slowly turned her head left and looked at him, a gasp-cry escaping her lips.

Daniel took out a handkerchief from his waistcoat and wiped away her tears, as he said to her, "He's always been childish, Sharon. You know that."

"I'm not crazy, Daniel!" Sharon cried, fresh tears escaping her eyes.

"No", Daniel whispered, reassuringly. "No, of course not."

Daniel cupped his left hand to her right cheek and wiped away a fallen tear with his thumb, before he planted a gentle kiss upon her lips and said to her, "I swear, Sharon. Bret _will_ pay for what he has done."

Sharon said nothing, but nodded her head in agreement.

Daniel then removed his waistcoat and wrapped it around her shoulders, before he helped Sharon to her feet and said to her, "Come on. I'll take you home."


	17. Chapter 17

As he drove her back to her house, Daniel glanced over at Sharon several times to see if she was all right. She did not look back at him, and instead, kept her head down.

"You know, if you want to sue him, I won't stop you", said Daniel, keeping his eyes on the road.

Sharon sighed to herself and said, "I don't know what I was thinking coming here tonight."

Daniel looked back at Sharon and asked her, "Didn't you enjoy our time together?"

"Of course I did", said Sharon, looking at Daniel. "But when Bret goes and does something like this..." Sharon felt her eyes turn watery and looked away from him.

Daniel focused his gaze back onto the road and said to her, "Perhaps I'm rushing into this, but if you ever wanted to get together, just you and me, perhaps we could go somewhere more private. I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. I just thought-"

"No, I know what you meant", said Sharon, as she looked out the window at the passing houses. "I just thought I could trust Bret, you know?"

Daniel looked back at Sharon and placed a hand on her knee. "Don't worry about it, Sharon."

The golden-haired girl with the thick-rimmed glasses turned her head and looked at him, as Daniel smiled at her and reassured her, "Everything's going to be all right."

Sharon gave him a faint smile and nodded her head. "Yeah. You're right."

Daniel placed his hand back on the wheel and continued focusing on driving.

Sharon looked ahead, only to see flashing red and blue lights in the distance. Just when they were about to pull up to her house, Sharon saw an ambulance and two cop cars were parked out in front, a crowd of people gathering around the residence to see what was going on.

"What in the world?" Sharon asked herself.

Daniel pulled over and parked across the street from Sharon's house. He and Sharon got out of the car, as Sharon ran over across the street and tried to look over the crowd of people standing in front of her house. A few minutes later, two men came out, carrying an old woman out on a stretcher.

"Mom?!"

Sharon pushed her way through the crowd and was about to run over to her mother, but then she was stopped by a cop, who grabbed her by her arms and said to her, "I'm sorry, ma'am. You can't go in there."

"It's all right. She lives here", said a familiar voice.

Sharon turned her head and saw it was Dwayne who had spoken.

The cop let go of Sharon, who ran over to Officer Mathews and grabbed onto the front of his uniform. "Dwayne, what happened?" Sharon asked him.

"We got a call about a masked man breaking into your house", he explained. "We think your mother might have suffered a heart attack."

"No!"

"You need to come with me", said Dwayne, taking Sharon by her hand and leading her over to his car.

"Dwayne, please!" Sharon begged him. "Mom almost died from a heart attack two years ago. She cannot have another one!"

"I'll explain everything to you on the way", said Dwayne, opening the door for Sharon, who turned around and called out, "Daniel, follow behind us!"

Daniel got back into his car and drove behind Sharon and Dwayne, who followed behind the ambulance.

By the time they arrived at the hospital, Sharon's mother was announced dead on arrival. As much as doctors tried to revive her, there was nothing they could do. The late woman's daughter was allowed to spend as much time with the body as she needed, but Sharon only needed but a few minutes to say goodbye, as she stroked the elderly woman's hair and planted a tearful kiss upon her ice-cold forehead. The corpse was then taken to the morgue.

Daniel waited out in the hallway, until Sharon finally came out of the room, wiping her tears with her hand. He stood up and approached her, as Sharon looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. Daniel looked at her sadly and wrapped his arms around her, as Sharon buried her face into his waistcoat and started crying softly again.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Sharon", Daniel told her.

"It's all my fault", Sharon whimpered, sniffling.

"No, Sharon, it's not your fault", Daniel reassured her, rubbing her back. "You didn't know this was going to happen. It was merely an accident."

"We don't know that for sure", said the voice of Officer Mathews.

Daniel released Sharon and turned around, only to see the officer was standing right behind them.

"We'll notify the coroner and have them look over the scene of the crime to determine the actual cause of death", said Dwayne. "My men are investigating the house right now and taking samples of any sign of forensic evidence that can help us identify the murderer."

"Not unless the murderer was wearing gloves", said Sharon, her eyes beginning to fill with fresh tears. "Then it will be just like Thomas' case all over again."

Dwayne placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "That's not going to happen again, Sharon. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Dwayne", Sharon warned him.

Dwayne paused and gave Sharon a look of sympathy, before he handed her a clipboard and said to her, "You need to fill out these forms so we can make burial arrangements."

Sharon turned around and walked away from Dwayne to sit over in a chair. Daniel followed and sat down in the chair next to Sharon, who started looking over the medical papers with concern. Seeing the worried expression on her face, Daniel placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and asked her, "Didn't your mom have any kind of medical insurance?"

Sharon shook her head and said, "No, she never applied for anything. We couldn't afford it." Sharon closed her eyes and took a deep breath, wishing she had never given that money away to Bret. Had she kept the money she received from Tom, she could afford to give her mother a proper funeral. After what he had done to her at the Queens Wharf, Sharon had no intention of confronting him anytime soon.

"What if I helped pay for the burial?" Daniel asked her.

Sharon looked at him and shook her head. "No, Daniel, I can't let you do that. That's too much money."

Daniel placed his hands on her shoulders and said to her, "I want to help you, Sharon. Please."

Sharon looked down at the papers on the clipboard again, her hands shaking, and tightened her lips, trying not to start crying again.

"Isn't there anything I can do to help?" Daniel asked her.

Sharon blinked, a tear falling down her cheek, and looked back at him. "If I give you the information, will you fill it out for me?"

"Of course", said Daniel.

Sharon handed him the clipboard and gave him basic instructions on what she wanted done with her mother's body. A simple funeral with a casket. Nothing fancy. After he had finished filling out the papers, Daniel stood up and walked over to the doctor, handing him the clipboard. The doctor looked over the papers and gave Daniel a puzzling look, as he pointed to something on the clipboard. Daniel pointed to the same spot on the paperwork and whispered something in his ear, before the doctor nodded his head and walked away. Sharon did not hear their conversation, nor did she look over at them, as she was still numb with grief over the loss of her mother, the same feeling she had when she lost Tamatoa the first time.

Daniel back walked over to Sharon and helped her to her feet, as he said to her, "I told Officer Mathews you could stay with me until their done investigating your house."

Sharon slowly looked up at Daniel and asked him, "Could I ask you for another favor?"

Knowing she could not go home, Sharon knew there was only one place left for her to go, and that was John's house. She would have graciously accepted Daniel's offer, but first there were something she had to do. She asked Daniel to drive her out to the forest and told him to stop at the end of the trail. Once they came to a clearing, Daniel turned off the car and looked over at the two story cabin in the distance.

"This is where the old man lives?" Daniel asked her.

Sharon did not look at him or say anything, but lowered her eyes and nodded her head.

Daniel turned his head to look at Sharon and asked her, "Do you want me to stick around?"

Sharon shook her head, still not looking at him.

Seeing her melancholy face turn slightly red, Daniel looked at her worryingly and asked her, "Are you going to be okay, Sharon?"

"I don't know anymore", Sharon whispered, her voice barely audible.

Daniel reached his hand over to gently stroke Sharon's face with his finger and said to her, "You're not alone in this, Sharon. I'm here for you. You're my friend and I love y-"

But before he could even finish his sentence, Sharon got out of Daniel's car and slammed the door, before she ran over to John's cabin. She tripped over something as she ran and fell to the soft ground, but got up quickly and removed her silver heels from her feet, continuing to run across the grounds on barefoot.

Sharon ran up the steps to the front porch and desperately banged on the door. No one answered. She waited a few minutes and knocked again. Soon, the door opened and revealed a groggy-looking John standing in a robe, his curly grey hair in a disarray.

"Sharon, what the hell are you doing here? It's almost midnight!"

"John, where is Tamatoa?" Sharon asked him. "I need to talk to him."

"Tamatoa's gone, Sharon", said John.

Suddenly, Sharon felt her heart stop, as her eyes grew wide with fright. "Gone? What do you mean he's gone?"

"I don't know where he is", said John. "After your little argument, I came back and he told me he was going down to the river. He never came back."

Sharon turned her head right and looked out towards the direction of the lake in the distance, the crescent shape of the moon barely glistening upon the watery surface of the river that led to the ocean.

"Oh, no", Sharon said to herself.

Fearing the worse, Sharon leaped off the front porch and ran down towards the river.

"Sharon, where are you going?" John called out to her. "Sharon!"

Sharon ran on down to the river and stood on the bank, as she put her hands to her mouth and called out, "Tamatoa!" She put her hands down and looked around desperately, as she ran alongside the riverbank a little further. "Tamatoa!" She called out again. There was no response. Sharon walked into the river until the water came up a little above her ankles and called out, "Tamatoa, please! I didn't mean all those things I said about you! I'm sorry!" There was still no answer. If the giant coconut crab was not answering her, then Tamatoa truly had left her for good.

Sharon dropped to her knees and placed her hands on her thighs, not caring if the water surrounding her legs was freezing cold. Her eyes turned misty, as she stared out at the river in anguish, knowing that she had ruined her friendship with the gargantuan crustacean.

Sharon lowered her head and whispered softly, "Please, Tamatoa...Don't leave me...You can't be gone. Not again." Sharon paused or a minute, before she lifted her head towards the heavens and shouted at the stars, "Why did you choose me for this?!...What have I done to warrant myself a creature like him?!..." Sharon lowered her head in shame and said to herself, "Who am I kidding? I can't do anything right...I'm just...I'm nothing but a worthless little human girl." Sharon closed her eyes and felt a tear escape from each one. "You were right, Tamatoa. I never should have exposed you to the outside world. I should have protected you better." Sharon sniffled and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "I wished I never lost you. I'd rather be dead then spent the rest of my life not being with you..." It was at that point the golden-haired young woman brought her hands to her face and let her tears flow freely, unaware of somebody's shadow looming over her. "Please forgive me", Sharon whimpered, sniffling as she hugged herself, trying to seek the tiniest bit of comfort.

"Sharon? Do you really mean that?" Asked a familiar voice from behind her.

"Of course I do", Sharon answered.

Lifting her head, Sharon looked upon the surface of the lake and saw Tamatoa's reflection standing behind her own. She turned her head left and looked up slowly, only to see that he really was behind her, looking down upon her with curious eyes.

Sharon stood up and turned around to face the gigantic crustacean, as she rubbed her arms for warmth and asked him, "You came back?"

Tamatoa lowered his right claw and carefully picked up Sharon by her waist. She held onto his claw, as Tamatoa brought her close to his face and said to her, "I never left, Sharon. I've always been right here with you."

Sharon's lower lip trembled, as she closed her eyes and hugged her arms around Tamatoa's head. The giant coconut crab closed his eyes, as his golden-haired beauty let silent tears roll down her face.

"Please don't leave me, Tamatoa", Sharon begged him. Her voice was soft and very low. "I can't loose you next."

Just as Sharon released her grip on him, the giant coconut crab opened his eyes and looked at her. "Come on. Let's get you to the barn before you catch a cold."

Tamatoa kept his eyes down on Sharon the whole time, as he walked them back over to the barn. The way she was holding onto his claw, the giant crustacean would have thought she was asleep, but the pain and suffering on her face told him a different story. He hadn't seen it before, but seeing just how small and vulnerable Sharon was made Tamatoa realize just how cruel he had been to her.

The giant coconut crab pushed open the door to the barn with his left claw and ducked before stepping inside. Tamatoa switched Sharon over to his left claw and carefully placed her down on the ground, before turning around and closing the door with his right claw. He then turned his attention back to Sharon and settled himself down beside her.

"What happened?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon brought her knees up to her chest and hugged her arms around her legs. She looked up at the giant coconut crab with watery red eyes and asked him, "Am I cursed, Tamatoa?"

"Why would you even ask a stupid question like that?" Tamatoa asked her, looking at Sharon with angry eyes, as if she would ever think to stoop herself so low to such a thing.

"Because everyone that comes into my life either dies or leaves me", she said. Sharon lowered her head and buried her face into her knees, trying not to let her tears show. She sniffled and said to the giant crustacean, "Mom's gone, Tamatoa. She died."

Tamatoa blinked and looked at her with shock. Even though he never cared for the old woman, the giant coconut crab knew that Sharon's mother was the only family member she had.

The golden-haired young woman gave a hard sob, to which Tamatoa brought his left arm around her and pulled Sharon closer to him. She rested herself against his arm and let out a whimper, as the giant crustacean stroked her back with his right claw and said to her, "I'm sorry, Sharon."

Sharon sniffled in response, but did not look at him or even say anything. Tamatoa hummed a little tune for her, as he now began stroking her entire body, calming Sharon down and putting her to sleep in the process.

Tamatoa carefully picked her up into his claw and placed her up in the hayloft. He found an old blanket and placed it over Sharon's sleeping form, as he stroked her body with his left claw and said to her, "Sleep well, Sharon. Things will look better in the morning", before settling himself down and forming himself into an inanimate pile of gold.


	18. Chapter 18

As the bright sunlight poured in through the window of the bedroom, Sharon moaned in her sleep and turned over on her right side. She slowly opened her eyes, only to find Tom was lying in the bed with her and that it was his apartment she was at.

"Hello", he said.

"Hi", Sharon murmured. Her voice sounded weak.

"How do you feel?" Tom asked her.

"I'm okay", Sharon whispered.

Tom placed the back of his hand onto Sharon's forehead and then to her left cheek. "You're still warm", he said. "I think I'm gonna stay home and take care of you."

"No, Tom, you don't have to do that", said Sharon.

"I want to", he said. "I don't want you to be alone."

Sharon snuggled up closer to him and whispered softly, "I'd kiss you, but I don't want you to get sick."

Tom rolled himself on top of Sharon and leaned in towards her, placing his lips onto hers. Sharon closed her eyes and melted into his kiss, as Tom slowly forced his tongue into her mouth. Sharon moaned in response and ran her fingers through his messy black hair.

"That's a risk we'll both have to take", Tom breathed out, as he gently ran his fingers against her lower lip.

All of a sudden, Sharon felt his weight being lifted off of her. She groaned and slowly opened her eyes, as she soon woke up from her dream. Sharon sat up and felt the blanket fall off her shoulders, as she looked to her right and crawled over to the edge of the hayloft. The gargantuan coconut crab that had put her to sleep last night was still asleep himself, hidden underneath his gold-covered shell. Sharon stood up and grabbed onto a nearby rope, sliding down silently. Soon as her feet touched the ground, Sharon walked over to him and placed a hand on his shell.

"Tamatoa?"

He didn't answer.

Sharon sighed through her nose and walked over towards the entrance to the barn.

"You're not going to leave me again, are you?" Said the voice of Tamatoa.

Sharon looked back at him and saw that the giant crab had poked his head out, his claws resting in front of him.

Walking back over to him, Sharon stood in front of Tamatoa and dropped to her knees, lowering her head in sadness and in shame.

Tamatoa gave her a sympathetic look and brought the tip of his left claw under her chin, lifting her head up and bringing her gaze back to meet his.

"It's going to be okay, Sharon", Tamatoa reassured her.

The golden-haired young woman looked at the gigantic crustacean with tears in her eyes and hugged her arms around his claw, as Tamatoa slowly pulled her up, lifting Sharon only a few inches off the ground, before placing her back down and helping her to stand on her feet. Sharon then released her grip from his claw and wiped away her threatening tears with her palm. She sniffled as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand and then looked up at Tamatoa again.

"I need to speak to John for a few minutes", said Sharon. "You'll be okay without me?"

Tamatoa smiled at her and said, "Take all the time you need, babe."

Sharon managed a weak smile and patted his claw, before she turned around and walked out of the barn. She left the barn door open and walked over to the front porch of John's cabin, looking up at the light grey sky, indicating there might be rain later on. Sharon lifted the skirt of her dress as she walked up the steps. She dropped the silvery fabric and stood in front of the door for a minute, looking back at the barn, before turning her attention back to the front door. She knocked four times and waited.

A minute later, John opened the door and stepped outside, looking at her with concern. "Sharon, are you okay?" John asked her. "What's wrong?"

"My mother's dead", Sharon told him.

John blinked and looked at her with shock.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up in the middle of the night, but-"

Sharon's words were cut off, as John wrapped his arms around her and said, "Oh, Sharon, I don't care about that." The old man ran a hand through her hair and told her, "I'm so sorry to hear about your mother."

Sharon hugged him back in return and whispered, "So am I", before she sniffled and buried her face into the crock of his neck.

John rubbed her back and brought her into the house, shutting the door behind them. He had Sharon sit down on the couch while he went into the kitchen and made her a strong cup of peppermint tea. Sharon sipped her hot beverage as she told John everything that had happened over the last twenty-three hours, from her fight with Tamatoa, up to her unexpected arrival at the cabin in the middle of the night.

After she had finished her story, John placed his left arm around Sharon and said to her, "Come here."

Sharon set her half-empty mug down and scooted closer to him, resting her head upon his shoulder, as John wrapped his other arm around her, embracing her in a warm, comforting hug.

"You know you can stay here as long as you want", John said to her.

"Thanks, John", Sharon whispered. "Do you mind if I use the phone?"

"No, go ahead", said John, releasing her. He pointed to an old rotary dial telephone next to the couch and said, "It's right over there."

Sharon looked to her left and scooted over to the end of the couch, reaching over for the phone. She picked up the handset and dialed a number, as John stood up and walked away to give her some privacy. Sharon waited until the voice of Daniel answered on the other end and talked with him about the arrangements for her mother's burial.

" _I've made arrangements for the funeral this Sunday_ ", Daniel said to her.

Sharon sighed and told him, "I don't know how to thank you for all you've done for me."

" _There's no need_ ", said Daniel. " _Think of it as my gift to you for all the wrong I've done you_."

"Well, I appreciate it very much, Daniel", said Sharon. "I don't know what I would have done without you."

" _You're welcome_."

Sharon nodded her head and told him, "Well, I have to go now. I'll talk to you later."

" _Take care, Sharon_ ", said Daniel.

"Bye."

The line went dead and Sharon hung up the phone. She rested her hands on her knees and took a deep breath to compose herself, before standing up and turning to face John, who presented her with a neatly-folded stack of clothes that looked about Sharon's size.

"What are these?" Sharon asked him, accepting the clothing.

"These are some of my wife's old clothes for you to wear", John answered. "I think they should fit you all right. You can go try them on in the bedroom upstairs."

"Thank you", said Sharon, walking pass John and heading towards the stairs.

John turned around and asked her, "Did you call your father?"

Sharon had just set foot on the stairs, when she turned around all of a sudden and looked at John with cold, dead eyes. "My _father_ abandoned me and my mom before I was born", she growled through clenched teeth. "He didn't even want me."

"Oh, I see", said John, understandingly.

Sharon then turned around and headed upstairs, leaving John to wonder about her daddy issues. "I wonder...", he said to himself.

Meanwhile, Tamatoa had fallen back asleep, resting his head on his claws. He heard the barn door open and looked to see who it was, only to find it was Sharon. She had switched out of her silver dress and was now clothed in a light blue, buttoned-up cotton shirt and dark blue jeans. A pair of black shoes on her feet.

Tamatoa stood up and looked down at Sharon, while she looked up at him.

16 years ago, neither one of them thought they would ever see each other again. Whatever innocence that had during their childhood was now gone forever. With Tamatoa now a monster and Sharon a woman, their lives would never be the same.

Sharon lowered her head and rubbed her arm, not sure what to say to him. Tamatoa reached his right claw over and lifted her head back up, staring at her with those remarkable eyes of his. Somehow or another, the gargantuan coconut crab knew exactly what she was thinking. There was no need for words to express the emotion of guilt felt between the two.

Tamatoa opened his claw to Sharon, who grabbed onto him. He lifted her up carefully by her waist and placed Sharon onto his back, before he exited the barn and headed on down towards the lake.

The faint rumbling of thunder was heard in the distance as they neared the river. Tamatoa grabbed Sharon off of his back and set her down on the gravel bank. The golden-haired young woman walked over towards the edge of the river and sat down on her knees, resting her hands on her thighs as she stared down at her reflection in the water.

"Do you remember your parents, Tamatoa?" Sharon asked him, not taking her gaze off of her reflection.

"All I remember is living with you", Tamatoa answered. "I was only a hatchling when they died."

"You ever had a near-death experience?" Sharon asked him.

"I've dodged a few here and there", Tamatoa answered. "But let's not talk about that. I want to hear more about you and Tom."

Sharon sighed to herself and shook her head, as she said to him, "You don't want to hear about." She knew Tamatoa was trying his best to cheer her up, but she was simply not in the mood.

"Yes, I do", said Tamatoa, encouraging Sharon and giving her a smile, but she did not see it. "I want to hear about all the good times you had with him while he was still alive. Heck, it doesn't even have to be about Tom. You can tell me about how you and old Mom got along without-"

Ignoring his attempt at trying to snap her out of her depression, Sharon turned her head right and asked him, "How did you survive without me, Tamatoa?"

The gargantuan crab blinked and looked down at her.

"All those years you spent alone in the ocean? How did you survive?"

Tamatoa stared at her for a minute, surprised by her question. He saw there was no use in trying to cheer her up and took a step towards Sharon, his humongous frame overshadowing her reflection in the river. "I had to survive", the giant coconut crab told her. "To be honest, I was never really alone. In a way, a part of you was always there watching over me. Whenever I went out looking for shiny treasures, I'd sometimes notice the presence of some mystical being studying me from a distance. I used to think it was you, only not so beautiful, but not quite as handsome as I am."

Sharon looked away from Tamatoa and turned her attention back to the river. She did not understand him and only saw his answer as yet another case of his narcissistic personality. Sharon cupped her hands into the river and splashed water onto her face, wiping her forehead before she cupped her hands into the river again and brought more of the cool refreshing liquid to her red hot face. She let out a shaky gasp and lowered her head, as she hugged her arms around herself and began crying softly.

Tamatoa looked down at her with concern and stroked the top of her head with his claw. "Sharon?"

"I'm okay", Sharon whispered, her body shivering.

The giant coconut crab looked down worryingly at his tiny human owner. Even as an adult, it still tore him apart to see his beloved Sharon so sad and so broken, like a lost child crying out for her mother, which was exactly her case.

Suddenly, Tamatoa's antennas started twitching slightly, an alarming look on his face, Sensing that danger was nearby, the giant coconut crab slowly turned his head left and looked suspiciously towards the forest behind him. Tamatoa looked back at Sharon to make sure she was all right, but she did not notice his actions, as she dried her eyes and tried to calm herself down. Taking this as an opportunity to sneak away, Tamatoa looked back towards the forest and silently walked over to the trees to investigate.

At first, the giant coconut crab saw nothing, until he heard a small clicking noise and looked down. Noticing a shadowy figure on the forest floor below him, Tamatoa plucked up a tree and found a fresh-faced, dark-haired young man about Sharon's age putting a small rectangular device into his coat pocket, a look of shock and awe on his face. As lightening flashed across the sky, the enraged gargantuan crustacean growled and reached over for the boy, as his body took on a frightening bioluminescent form.

The young man tried running away, but the giant, bioluminescent, coconut crab grabbed him by his ankle and hauled him up into the air, holding his body upside down, as the young man looked horrifically at the dark, gigantic crab monster with shiny neon markings all over his body.

 _" **WHO ARE YOU?!**_ " Tamatoa spoke to him in his most deepest and most demonic voice yet, shaking him vigorously. " ** _WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!_** "

The young, dark-haired man could only scream in response.

"Well, well, well", said the voice of Sharon.

The young man, who Sharon recognized as Bret, looked down and saw his blonde friend with thick-rimmed glasses walk up beside the giant crab, unafraid of the oceanic beast. Sharon smiled up darkly at him, as she placed her hands on her hips, flipped her hair out of her face, and asked the boy in a mocking, yet sultry tone of voice, "What have we here?"

"Sharon, please!" Bret begged her, dangling helplessly from his ankle. "I can explain!"

Sharon turned her head left and looked up at Tamatoa, who stared down at her with caution.

Sharon cocked her head right and told the gargantuan crab, "Put him down, Tamatoa,"

Looking back at the boy, the gargantuan crab gave Bret a menacing look and growled lowly, as he lowered him just a few inches above the ground and dropped him face down into the grass.

Before he could get to his feet, Sharon grabbed Bret by the front of his shirt and pinned him up against a tree. If ever there had been a time where looks could kill, Bret would have been considered a dead man just by staring into the golden-haired woman's eyes.

"How the hell did you find me?" Sharon asked him, her voice low, but dangerous.

"Daniel told me", Bret answered her. "But, Sharon, you've got to listen to me-"

"Why should I listen to you?" Sharon asked him. "Especially after the way you treated me last night?"

"I know, Sharon. I'm really sorry. It was a stupid thing to do, but-"

Sharon blinked and raised her eyebrows at him. "A _stupid_ thing to do? You got drunk in a fit of jealousy all because I danced with your brother!?"

"That's what I came to tell you about", Bret tried to explain. "He wants to-"

Sharon pulled Bret's face closer to hers and spoke to him in a calm fury, "Get...out...of my life."

Releasing her tight grip on his shirt, Sharon turned around on her heel and raised her right hand up. "Pick me up, Tamatoa!" She commanded.

The giant coconut crab obeyed and picked up his human mistress, placing her onto the back of his gold-covered shell, as he stared down at Bret with disgust and reverted back to his original form, leaving the young man at a loss for words.

"I mean it, Bret", Sharon warned him. "If you ever show your face around here again, I'll have Tamatoa eat you."

With that said, Tamatoa turned around and walked away from the guilt-ridden Bret, carrying Sharon onto his back like an Indian princess riding an elephant.

As they headed on down along the riverbank, Tamatoa turned his head and asked Sharon, "Hey. Would you really have me eat him?"

"No, I just told him that so he'd leave me alone", said Sharon.

"It's a shame", said Tamatoa. "I would have done it anyway." Turning his head back straight, Tamatoa proceeded on further down along the bank. Sharon crawled over to his neck and said, "Besides, I don't need Bret in my life anymore." She hugged her arms around the back of the giant crab's neck and rested her head against him. "All I have left is you now, Tamatoa."

The gargantuan crustacean stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Sharon, smiling at her.

"You remember the day we first met?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon chuckled and said, "Yes, I do." She released her arms around his neck and stood up, saying, "When you were little- Well, littler, you were so small, you could fit right into the palm of my hand."

"And the times you used to dance me around the room?"

"How could I forget?" Sharon walked over to the other side of Tamatoa's shell and picked up the silver tiara with pink diamonds on it, the one treasure she loved most out of his collection, and picked away a speck of dust off of the priceless artifact.

"You still dance, don't you?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon sighed and said, "Not since Thomas died", as she examined the crown up closely.

Tamatoa frowned at her answer and paused for a minute, watching Sharon mess around with the tiara.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Sharon?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon turned her head right and looked at him, curiously. "Like what?"

"Do you remember anything about your dad at all?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, tossing the tiara aside. "How many times do I have to say it? I DON'T HAVE ONE!"

Tamatoa glared at her and tilted his shell to one side, causing Sharon to stumble backwards and fall off. The gargantuan crab caught her in time and brought her close to his face.

"So, you don't remember anything about him at all?"

"No", said Sharon. "Now put me down."

Soon as Tamatoa set her down on the ground, Sharon began storming away from him. Suddenly, a thunderclap was heard over both of them, as lightening flashed across the sky again. Taking this as a sign, Sharon stopped just a few feet away from him. Her expression changed, as she looked down at one of her hands and rubbed her wrist with her other hand.

"However", said Sharon, slowly turning back to look at the giant crustacean. "I had this strange dream once."

Tamatoa down looked at her, listening.

"In the dream, I saw my mother at the hospital the day I was born", Sharon explained, a dazed expression on her face, as if she were in a trance of some kind. "She was sitting up in bed, smiling down at me as she held me in her arms. Suddenly, this strange man appeared out of nowhere. Mom looked at him as he sat down on the bed and then handed me over to him. She placed me in his arms and he just stared at me for what seemed like forever. I couldn't see his face, but I remembered he had blonde hair. Almost the same color as mine, if not lighter..."

"And then what happened?" Tamatoa asked her.

Sharon sighed and put her hands into her pant pockets, before turning around and staring at her reflection in the water again. "And then I woke up", she said.

Tamatoa looked at her for a minute, before he picked up the tiara from off his shell, looked at it for a bit, and then placed it on top of her head. Sharon turned around and looked up at the giant crab.

"I don't think your father left you because he wanted to", said Tamatoa. "I think he left because he _had_ to."

"But why?" Sharon asked him. "That's what I don't understand. You'd think he was an axe murderer or something."

"Do _you_ think he is?" Tamatoa questioned her, looking at her suspiciously.

Sharon shrugged her shoulders and said, "No. But if he isn't that, then what is he?"

Tamatoa looked down at Sharon hesitantly and sighed deeply, but before he could even get a word out, Tamatoa let out a groan of pain, as something struck him in the left side of his neck. Sharon gasped in horror, as the gargantuan crab turned around and saw at least fifty to a hundred men wearing black uniforms holding tranquilizer guns at him. Several more needles struck him in the neck and on the underside of his belly, as Tamatoa swung a gigantic claw at them, knocking half the fleet down.

Another hundred men appeared from out of the bushes and started firing at the gargantuan crustacean from the side, the surprise ambush causing Tamatoa to collapse onto the ground in pain.

Sharon stood in front of him and waved her arms at the men in black uniforms, shouting, "No! Leave him alone!"

Tamatoa tried looking at Sharon and saw his vision was starting to double, the tranquilizers taking affect.

"Sharon, look out!", Tamatoa shouted, swinging his claw at the men coming towards them from the side and trying to block the stream of tranquilizers being fired at him again.

Sharon turned around and said to Tamatoa, "I'll go get John! Maybe he can help!"

"Sharon, wait-"

But before he could stop her, Sharon took off running, leaving the giant, helpless crab to fend for himself. Despite his massive size, Tamatoa was already starting to feel too weak from the tranquilizers to fight off the swarm of men, as they now started throwing ropes around him.

Sharon had managed to get past the sea of men in black, but just when she neared the cabin, Sharon could see Officer Mathews was holding John up against a police cruiser, handcuffing him.

"No!" Sharon shouted at him, running faster towards them. "No! No, wait!"

All of a sudden, and without warning, Sharon felt a hot pain in her left arm and felt her knees buckle below her, causing her to fall face down into the grass. She sat up at once and removed the tranquilizer needle that had struck her in the arm, She tried standing up and looked towards the direction of the cabin, her wobbly knees threatening to collapse again. The last thing she saw was John being placed into the back of Officer Mathews' car, before a black vehicle pulled up in front of her. She tried to see who the driver was that got out of the car, but unfortunately, her vision started to go blurry.

"Tamatoa..." Sharon felt herself starting to loose consciousness and soon fell to the ground again, the silver tiara falling off her head.


	19. Chapter 19

Over the next two days, Sharon and Tamatoa were subjected to a series of tests in a secret underground lab run by New Zealand government agents. Neither one of them were found positive for anything, let alone radiation, but the tortures they had to endure were simply unbearable. John had been luckier than the other two and had not been subjected to any testing, but was simply taken into custody by the police and was now being questioned by the government agents that had somehow found out about the giant coconut crab. The old man refused to talk, however, and had threatened to expose whatever it was that he knew to the public if they did not release Sharon and Tamatoa. After much debating with John, the government agents had decided to let the girl go free, but unfortunately, the same fate could not be said for the gargantuan crustacean.

Officer Mathews and an agent named Wallace personally escorted John to a room where Sharon was being held in. Once Agent Wallace unlocked and opened the door, John saw Sharon lying curled up on the floor. The young blonde woman had been stripped of her clothes and was now wearing a cream-colored jumpsuit, looking like she was some prisoner in a maximum security facility.

"Sharon!" John exclaimed, running over to her and dropping to his knees.

Sharon turned her head and barely looked up at him. Her expression was stoic and the water stains on her face indicated that she had been crying. John helped her to sit up and asked her with concern, "Sharon, are you all right? Did they hurt you?"

"No", Sharon answered, her voice was monotone and lacked all emotion. She looked over at Officer Mathews and asked him, "What are you doing here?"

Officer Mathews stepped into the confinement room and tossed the old clothes John had given her onto the metal bed. "Get dressed, Sharon", he said. "You're going home."

Sharon kept her eyes locked onto him as John helped her to her feet and asked Officer Mathews, "Home? What about Tamatoa?"

"You may see him", said Agent Wallace, "but I'm afraid this will be the last time for you to say goodbye."

"Then I'm not going", said Sharon, taking a step back.

"Look, Sharon, I tried to get these people to release both you and Tamatoa, but they just won't listen to me", John explained to her. "Look, we'll find another way to get Tamatoa out of here, but right now-"

"That thing is not going anywhere", said Officer Mathews. "I don't know how that thing came to be or what he's capable of, but for all we know, that monster could do some serious damage to the people of this city."

"He's not a monster!" Sharon protested.

"Okay, Sharon, maybe to you he's not a monster, but neither I nor the mayor are going to allow a beast like that to roam around-"

"Thank you for sharing your concern, Officer Mathews, but I think it would be best if you left", Agent Wallace interrupted, his voice filled with an air of calm and peacefulness.

Officer Mathews turned his head and looked at the agent and then looked back at Sharon, her eyes filled with hate. He then turned around and walked out of the room.

"Dwayne!"

Officer Mathews turned around and looked back at Sharon, who looked at him desperately and asked him in a tearful voice, "You're not going to do anything?"

"I have a family and a city full of people to protect, Sharon", said Officer Mathews. "What would you do?" And with that, he turned his back on Sharon and walked away for good.

Sharon closed her eyes and looked away, putting a hand to her face as a tear leaked out from the corner of her eye. while John placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Agent Wallace looked at the two with sympathy and said, "I'll wait until your ready to see him, Miss Sharon." He closed the door slightly and waited outside patiently while Sharon changed back into her clothes.

Meanwhile, Tamatoa was currently being held in another part of the laboratory, several heavy chains holding him down while a pair of electrodes were connected to either sides of his neck. This method was done so that everytime he tried to stand up or make an escape, a stinging pain would shock through his body, causing him to yell out in pain and fall back down. The treasures on the giant coconut crab's shell had also been confiscated, which infuriated him even more. Overtime, Tamatoa started to think that all of this was Sharon's fault. It was her fault he had lost all his treasures. It was her fault he had been strapped down and submitted to being tortured like a wild animal trapped inside a cage. And it was her fault that he had been turned into a monster in the first place. The monster he feared people would truly see him for. If Sharon hadn't lost him that day at the harbor, none of this would have happened to him. Because of this, the gargantuan crustacean wanted nothing more to do with her.

When Agent Wallace led her to where Tamatoa was being held, he turned to Sharon and warned her to prepare herself, before he opened the door to the dark room and allowed her to enter. Sharon stopped dead in the doorway and gazed up at the sight of her beloved Tamatoa strapped down in chains and hooked up to a pair of electric devices that where implanted into both sides of his neck. The only source of light coming from the bioluminescent markings on his darkened skin. The mere sight of him brought tears to Sharon's eyes, as she looked upon the area of Tamatoa's shell, in which all of his golden artifacts had been taken away from him, leaving his shell as barren as a desert without an oasis. He looked to her like a creature in a science fiction story that had turned out horribly wrong, filling her with a deep sense of guilt.

"Take all the time you need", Agent Wallace said to Sharon, who looked back at him, before he closed the door and gave the human girl and her pet coconut crab some time alone.

Sharon looked back at the chained-up Tamatoa and slowly, but silently walked over to him, revealing herself from out of the darkness as she neared his barely-glowing form.

"Tamatoa?"

The giant coconut crab did not look at her. The angry expression on his neon face told Sharon all she needed to know, but she still wished to speak with him.

"Are you okay?" Sharon asked him.

"No", Tamatoa growled.

"Are you hurt?"

"You said you'd never let anything happen to me", said Tamatoa, looking out of the corner of his left eye.

"Tamatoa, I'm so sorry", Sharon told him, tears falling from her eyes. "I don't know how this happened. I just-"

"ABANDONED ME?!" The giant crab roared at her, a surge of electricity suddenly pulsating through the giant crab's body. Tamatoa groaned in pain and rested his head back down, breathing heavily.

"Tamatoa, don't!" Sharon begged him. "Please! I don't know how this happened or who found out about you, but I swear, I wasn't trying to abandon you. I was only trying to help you."

"I should have known better than to trust you, human", Tamatoa scolded her, his tone bitter and cold. The giant coconut crab turned his head left and said to her, "If you hadn't lost me that day at the harbor, none of this would have happened."

More tears fell from Sharon's eyes, as she stepped forward and said to him, "That was an accident, Tamatoa! You know I never meant to loose you like that. I tried to save you, but I couldn't, okay? I know I should have taken better care of you and that I failed at protecting you, but I promise you, _swear_ to you on my own life, that I never meant to cause you any harm, Tamatoa. I only wanted to share my world with you."

Tamatoa blinked in surprise and said to her, " _Your_ world? Sharon, look at me! I don't belong in your world! In fact, I wish you had never entered into mine!"

Sharon gasped in quiet horror, feeling as though an arrow had pierced right through her heart. A cold dread spread through her veins, leaving her whole body numb with a sense of distress and contrition.

It was at that point that the giant coconut crab looked away from the golden-haired human girl he once trusted and whispered softly, "Now get out of here."

Lips trembling, Sharon slowly placed her hands onto his claw and tried to speak, "...Tamatoa...Please...If you'd just listen to me-"

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Tamatoa yelled at her.

Sharon backed away in fright and bit the inside of her mouth in order to prevent herself from crying in front of him.

A few minor sparks came from the electrodes in the giant coconut crab's neck, but he did not react to them.

With nothing more to say, Sharon turned around and walked away from Tamatoa, exiting through the door in the left corner of the dark laboratory room and leaving behind the only friend she ever had, the only friend she ever cared about.

When Sharon walked back into the room, she was more than surprised to see that Bret was there speaking with John and Agent Wallace. All three men looked over at her, while Sharon stared directly over at Bret. The young man with dark curly hair started to walk over to her and said, "Sharon, please. There's something I have to tell you about-"

Sharon stepped away from him at once, fresh tears filling her eyes, and whispered in a threatening tone, "Don't come near me...Don't you _dare_ come near me..."

Bret said nothing and looked at her with guilt written all over his face, his dark eyes turning misty.

Agent Wallace walked over and placed his right arm around Sharon's shoulder, while the golden-haired young woman buried her face into his chest and clutched her right hand onto his black suit, not want to look at the young man before her.

"Come", Agent Wallace spoke to Sharon, leading her away from Bret. "I've arranged transportation for both you and John."

Bret stood there for a minute, watching them leave, before he turned towards the direction of the laboratory room and opened the door. Walking over to the chained-up Tamatoa, the young man showed no fear, as he stood in front of the gargantuan, neon-faced crustacean and said to him, "What did you do to her?"

The giant coconut crab, who looked like he was resting, opened his eyes and glared at Bret, asking him, "Who are you?"

"You know who I am", said Bret, his voice calm, but with a hint of direction and certainty. "Sixteen years ago, your owner brought you to her school. You were confronted by three boys, one which happened to be my brother. He hurt you and he tried to hurt Sharon-"

Suddenly, Tamatoa lifted his head and shouted in a demonic tone, "No! Not another word from you!"

Bret paused for a minute and took another step towards the giant beast. "You don't scare me, Tamatoa", he said. "What scares me is that you don't remember me at all."

The gargantuan sea creature gave a low, menacing growl and stared down at the young man before him, a fire burning deep down inside his glowing magenta eyes.

"I used to think you were cool, but now you're just a fake", said Bret. "You have no idea how much Sharon loves you, do you?"

"If Sharon loves me, then how come she abandoned me twice?" Tamatoa questioned him.

Bret shook his head with disgust and said to him, "You're really sad, you know that? You're only saying that about Sharon just to make yourself feel better. You make her feel worthless but _you_ feel worthless. You know she tried to kill herself because she missed you that much? Sharon loves you, Tamatoa. And all you care about is yourself. You tell her that it was all _her_ fault she lost you in the harbor? Daniel's the one to blame for all this!"

The giant coconut crab remained silent and continued to stare down at the dark-haired young man, his eyes still fuming but with a softer tone to them.

Bret nodded his head and looked to his right. "But what does it matter now, huh?" Bret continued, throwing his arms up in the air and letting them fall to his sides. He looked back at Tamatoa and said to him, "No one wants to listen to a bastard like me, right?...So there you have it."

And with that, Bret turned around and started heading back towards the door. Tamatoa watched him walked over to the left corner of the room, as he rested his head back down onto his claws, keeping his eyes on the curly-haired human boy.

Bret opened the door and was just about to exit the dark laboratory, when all of a sudden, he turned around and said, "At least you had her love, Tamatoa. I've loved Sharon all my life, but she's never been interested in me. She never will be. She always saw me as more of a friend than anything. But you know something? In all honesty, I don't mind that at all. Because I used to know a guy who had this saying once: _'The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return'_."

"What idiot said that?" Tamatoa asked him.

"David Bowie", said Bret. "Too bad he died six months ago." He then shut the door behind him.

Tamatoa blinked in surprise, a wide range of guilt striking into his heart. David Bowie? His idol? Dead? It just couldn't be true! All his life, the giant coconut crab had always wanted to be just like him, but now, for the first time in his whole life, Tamatoa felt deeply ashamed of himself for what he had done to Sharon. She was the only one who ever believed in him and always loved him for who he was, but now, unfortunately, he had just lost her again. It was at that point that the giant coconut crab finally realized what Sharon truly meant to him. She was more to him than just his friend. She had been, from day one, his one true love. His treasure.


	20. Chapter 20

When Sharon stepped out into the grey of daytime, a sea of flashing lights blinded her vision, as a thousand voices bombarded her with questions and comments about the giant "monster" crab. Luckily for her, Agent Wallace's hand grabbed her wrist and led her safely through the crowd of photographers and news reporters. Through the midst of the chaos, Sharon could see John had gotten ahead of them, as he took away one photographer's camera and threw it onto the ground, spewing out a wide range of curse words he never used before in his entire life.

Agent Wallace had finally managed to get Sharon and John to a black vehicle and placed them into the back of the car. He slammed the door shut and right away the car pulled out into the street and down the road. The crowd let out a series of groans and short curses, as Agent Wallace quietly managed to slip away from the news media and walked down to a dark alleyway a few blocks away from the science lab.

John slammed his fist against the window and shouted to them through the glass, "You all can't just wait until he dies of old age?!" The old man turned his head left and looked at Sharon, who kept her head down and said nothing. Her face was non-expressive. "Look, Sharon, I'm only kidding", John reassured her. "I know it's not a laughing matter, but we're gonna find a way to get Tamatoa out of there. You'll see."

"No", Sharon whispered, not looking at him. Her voice was monotone and lacked all range of human emotion. "No, we won't, John. Knowing the way these people have been treating him over the last 48 hours, they'll probably end up killing him before the week is out. I'm already dead, I just don't know it yet...I failed."

"Come on now. Don't say that", said John. "What are you talking about you failed? We haven't even done anything yet. First, we need a plan to-"

Sharon looked at him and said, "He doesn't trust me anymore, John."

"Well, if Tamatoa doesn't trust us, who are _we_ suppose to trust, huh?" John questioned.

Meanwhile, Agent Wallace was driving down the rainy streets of Wellington in another black vehicle, keeping his distance between himself and the yellow cab in front of him. The cab turned right, while the agent continued driving straight on forward. He glanced briefly at the gold wedding ring on his right hand, a symbol of his eighteen years of marriage, and focused back onto the road. His wife, who had recently passed away in a car accident last month, was the only reason Agent Wallace was doing what he was doing at the moment. Had it not been for a recently-acquainted friend, the agent would have joined her by now by putting a bullet in his mouth, leaving behind his two little girls with no one else to take care of them.

Agent Wallace continued onto his route, as he drove alongside the chain link fence that surrounded the lagoon near the sea. He parked his car in front of an old abandoned warehouse and walked on down to the pier in the pouring rain, stopping halfway to look around him and see if anybody was in sight. A few fishermen were just getting through tying up their boat and left not too long after. He then continued walking on down to the docks and stood near the edge of the pier, looking out towards Wellington Harbor.

Seeing that he was alone, Agent Wallace reached into the inside pocket of his black suit and pulled out a silver diadem adorned with pink jewels. This particular, if not priceless artifact was dropped into the water, as the agent had come down to this place to return it back to its rightful owner. He did not have to wait long for his client to show up, as a splashing noise was soon heard beneath the wooden surface below. Agent Wallace turned around and crotched down, as a pair of light brown eyes appeared through a crack in the pier.

"What news have you?" A male's voice asked him.

"I have found her, my lord", Agent Wallace answered.

Later that night, as the still chained-up coconut crab was resting peacefully for once since his capture, a voice in the shadows awoke Tamatoa from his sleep.

"Well, well, well..."

Tamatoa opened his eyes and lifted his head, looking over towards the left corner of the laboratory. A faint orange light flickered in the darkness, but quickly extinguished, as a man appeared from out of the shadows, a cigarette in his right hand. The man took a long inhale of his smoke and blew out, as he slowly walked over to the chained-up crustacean, a confident smile on his smirk face.

"So, this is the famous monster crab, hmm?" Asked the man.

"Who are you?" Tamatoa asked him, more annoyed than angry.

"An old friend", said the man, taking another inhale of his nasty cigarette. He removed it from his lips and blew smoke into the gargantuan crustacean's bioluminescent face, causing him to cough roughly from the foul stench.

"Actually, I was hoping we could have a little friendly chat, you and me", the man continued. "I wanted you to see how much you and your little friend ruined me ever since they took my father away. But I wasn't always like this, you know. I had everything. Or _thought_ I did, as my brother put it. When I was a boy, I had two very devoted, loving parents. Like yours, I'm sure. Though, honestly, I'm not quite sure, because I don't care about you _or_ your parents. So, what is the point of my bringing up the dead relatives of a monster, you ask?"

Tamatoa said nothing and just glared at the man, squinting his eyes in anger.

"I'll tell you why", said the man, nodding his head. He raised an eyebrow at Tamatoa and explained to him, "After my mother died, I thought it would be just me, my father, and my little brother, you see? But no. Instead, Daddy went insane and took his anger out on both of us. Even though he hurt me and I was afraid of him, I still wanted a family. I didn't care what it took. I gave Bret a simple instruction. I told him not to speak a word about the abuse to anyone. But he did. And so, the child protective services separated me and Bret into different houses and father died in prison. All because your precious little Sharon learned the truth. As I got older, I thought what better way for revenge than to separate the family who took mine away from me first...And know here you are. Back from the dead."

"I've never seen you before in my life", Tamatoa said at last. his voice low and menacing.

The man cocked his eyebrow in amusement, taking another inhale of his half-finished cigarette. He blew out again and said to him, "You don't remember me, do you?" The man switched his cigarette over to his left hand and held up his right hand, turning it over to show the giant coconut crab a scar on his index and middle finger, asking him, "Does this bring back any memories?"

 _"Stop! You're hurting me!"_

As if he were reliving the experience, Tamatoa's eyes suddenly widened in shock, as he flashbacked to the incident of when Sharon was a little girl being bullied by an older boy. " _Say that again and you'll be sorry, you four-eyed freak_ ", the boy warned her. As she started to cry from the boy grabbing her ear, a tiny baby blue crab suddenly sprang forward from young Sharon's pocket and jumped onto the boy's right hand, pinching his fingers and making them bleed. The boy cried out in pain and released young Sharon, as he sent the little crustacean flying through the air, causing him to land headfirst onto the hard concrete ground, forever damaging his left eye.

When he came back to reality, Tamatoa was quiet for a minute, before he looked down at the man in shock and whispered, "You?"

The man gave him an evil smirk, his cold blue eyes staring back into the alarming magenta of Tamatoa's, and said to him, "Seems little Danny boy hasn't changed one bit since you left, does it?"

Furious, the gargantuan crustacean gritted his teeth and made a sound that was neither human nor animal, but rather like a possessed demon, as he tried standing up, only for the electrodes in his neck to activate again, sending a wave of shocks and electricity through his body. Despite the pain, Tamatoa bit his lip to try and surpass a moan, determined to get his claw on the man standing before him.

Daniel delighted himself in watching the giant coconut crab suffer, as he inhaled again and blew out more toxic smoke.

Just when he was about to reach over for Daniel, who took two steps back away from him, Tamatoa let out a shriek of agonizing pain and collapsed back down, breathing heavily. Too weak and exhausted to fight for himself, the giant coconut crab saw no other way out of his imprisonment and accepted defeat.

Taking another inhale of his cigarette, Daniel pointed to a small cut on his lower lip and said, "By the way, you see this scar? Sharon gave me this the day I tried to kill you. After I dropped you into that batch of chemicals, I figured that was the end of one of you. Stupid girl reached into the barrel and pulled you out. She tried to escape with you in her hands, but luckily, I was able to tackle her. She let you slip through her little fingers and dropped you into the harbor that day."

"...No...", Tamatoa growled, not looking at the cold-hearted Daniel. "...You're wrong...Sharon didn't drop me into the harbor..." The gargantuan crustacean lifted his head and looked at Daniel with a hatred-filled fire burning in his eyes. "You _made_ her drop me! You're the cause of all this!" The giant coconut crab tried to move again, but another surge of electricity made him change his mind at the last minute and forced him to lie his head down onto his claws. "Bret was right about you", Tamatoa groaned. "And to think Sharon and I didn't believe him."

Daniel gave the giant crustacean an evil smirk and said to him, "And now you'll never see her again. After the way you treated her, I don't think Sharon will ever forgive you of accusing her. You'll die the same way as you have lived: alone and unloved."

Tamatoa forced himself to look at Daniel, a look of terror on his face and his eyes filled with pain.

Daniel dropped the last part of his cigarette onto the floor and crushed it with his foot, before he said to Tamatoa, "See you in Hell, monster", before he turned around and walked out of the lab.

As the giant coconut crab felt a powerful fear creep through his veins, the bright pink markings on Tamatoa's face died a little, as a pale blue light shined down on him from a nearby window. The giant coconut crab looked to his right and looked up towards the light, as a bright, shiny blue moon appeared in the inky canvas of the dark, but starlit sky.


	21. Chapter 21

Meanwhile, Sharon was sitting down by the riverbank, looking up at the same blue moon as the giant coconut crab. All those years she spent, contemplating on the possibility of being reunited with her beloved Tamatoa, had now turned into her worst nightmare. Her hopes and dreams crumbled into dust. She had risked everything she had just so she could see him again, and now that the giant coconut crab no longer trusted her or wished to see her, the golden-haired young woman felt as though her entire life had just been taken away from her and that she had nothing else left to live for.

Looking down into the sad reflection on the river, Sharon looked to her right and picked up a jagged rock, examining it for a minute, before returning her gaze back up towards the stars. Somehow, a strange and sudden sickness was starting to take hold of her, as though the light of the blue moon was casting a powerful spell down onto Sharon, filling her with a powerful energy she never knew she had. Whatever this feeling was, Sharon did not wish to behold it.

Still hurt over the rejection of Tamatoa, Sharon slowly shook her head and whispered softly, "I don't know where you are or if you can even hear me, Daddy...But if you're up there in Heaven with Mom..."

Closing her eyes, a tear trickling down her cheek as she did, Sharon slowly raised the jagged rock above her head, attempting to perform the same unforgiving stunt she had tried a few days ago. "...Tell her I'm sorry..."

"Don't do it, Sharon!"

Recognizing the voice that had spoken to her, Sharon snapped her eyes open and dropped the rock in her hands.

"That voice..." Sharon breathed, almost audibly. She lowered her hands down and slowly looked over her right shoulder, her brown eyes widening in surprise. Standing but a few feet away from Sharon was a young man with black hair wearing black-rimmed glasses like hers, his expression filled with concern and his body surrounded by a sparkling green aurora.

"Tom?" Sharon stood up slowly and turned her body to face him.

"Don't do it, Sharon", Tom repeated. "It's not your time yet."

Sharon blinked and said nothing for a minute, as she stared upon the spiritual image of her dead lover in shock. She blinked again and slowly walked over to him, extending her left hand out to touch him. Tom offered for her to take his right hand, but just when she was about to take it, Sharon stopped herself in front of him and looked down, only to see her hand was trembling. She looked back up at Tom and shook her head in disbelief, pulling her hand away.

"T-that's not possible. Y...Y-you can't be..."

"But it _is_ me, Sharon."

"But you're dead", Sharon said to him, fresh tears filling her eyes as she looked him over. "I-I saw them bury you. You practically died in my arms, remember?"

"Yes, I do", said Tom. "I died, but I never really left you. I've been watching over you ever since I was killed that night. I know what you're thinking, Sharon, but, baby, it's not your time yet. Please don't hurt yourself."

Shaking her head in denial, Sharon felt hot tears run down her cheeks and whispered to him, "You're not real."

"Sharon-"

"You're not real, Thomas. You never existed."

Tom took a step forward and placed his hands on Sharon's shoulders. "Baby, listen to me. I know it hasn't been easy for you these last few days, but I need you to trust me. Have I ever given you any reason to doubt me?"

Sharon continuing shaking her head, saying to herself, "You're not real, you're not real."

"Yes, I am, Sharon", said Tom. "You just don't want to admit it, because you think it was your fault I died that night."

"You're not real, you're not real", Sharon repeated to herself, raising her voice.

Tom clutched her wrists and said, "Sharon, listen to me-"

"YOU'RE NOT REAL!" Sharon yelled, trying to pull away from him, but to no avail. "You're not real! You're not real! Please, just stop..."

Tom loosened his grip on her wrists and wrapped his arms around Sharon, shielding her body into his glowing frame as they both dropped down to their knees. Feeling her body shaking with an overcome of emotion, Sharon grabbed onto the sleeve of his corduroy jacket and buried her face into his chest, letting out a series of quiet sobs between her trembling lips. Tom held her in his arms for a while, rubbing her back with one hand and placing the other one onto the back of her head, running his long, slender fingers through her mop of golden hair, comforting her.

"I'm so sorry, Thomas", Sharon cried, sniffling.

"Sharon, don't say that", Thomas hushed her, rocking her gently. "Neither one of us knew this was going to happen. It just did. So don't say it was your fault. You can't keep blaming yourself for something you didn't do. You hear me?"

Sharon looked up at him slowly with burning red eyes, tears falling down her cheeks, and gently placed a hand onto Tom's face, feeling the strange touch of his glowing body. She looked at him worryingly and asked him, "Does it hurt?"

"I'm not hurting, Sharon", Tom reassured her, gently pulling her wrist away and taking both of her hands into his. "I'm happy where I am, but I'm also worried about you. I know you miss me, but I don't _ever_ want you to give up on life. You still have so much more to live for, and if you kill yourself, we can never see each other again. Do you want that to happen?"

Sharon shook her head. "No", she said.

"I miss you a lot, Sharon", said Tom, "but seeing you wake up every morning and going on with your life makes me happy just to know you're still alive and doing okay. You mean more to me than the stars and the sun combined, and I don't ever want you to forget that. I love you, Sharon. I always will."

Sharon said nothing and looked at him for a minute, before she lowered her eyes and wiped her nose with her arm, sniffling. "Tom...", she said, not sure what to say to him. "I...I have a confession to make."

"I've already forgiven you, Sharon", Tom said to her.

Sharon blinked and looked back up at him again, mild surprise painted on her face.

"But right now, Tamatoa needs you", he said. "He needs you more than you'll be needing him."

Sharon looked into Tom's eyes, searching for an answer, and said to him, "It was you, wasn't it? You told Tamatoa how to find me."

Tom shook his head and said to her, "No, Sharon. Someone _did_ tell Tamatoa where to find you, but it wasn't me."

"Who then?" Sharon asked him. "Who was it?"

Tom smiled warmly and stroked her left cheek with the back of his right hand. "You'll find out soon enough, sweet pea", he answered.

Tom then took off her glasses, blinding her temporarily, as Sharon wiped away the remaining tears from her eyes.

"You remember that one time I stole your glasses and said you looked more beautiful without them?" Tom asked her.

Sharon laughed a little bit, a faint smile on her face, and said to him, "I do. And after you gave me mine back, I took off yours and told you you looked uglier without them."

Tom put Sharon's glasses back onto her face and took hold of her hands again. "Sharon, before I go, there's something I have to tell you. Something I should have told you the first day I met you."

"What is it, Thomas?" Sharon asked him.

Tom leaned in towards Sharon and whispered something into her ear. Whatever news he told her made Sharon's eyes grow wide with shock. The golden-haired, light brown-eyed young woman looked at Tom, who looked back at her and said, "He knows who I am, but he doesn't know about what happened. You'll have to be the one to tell him."

"Why me?" Sharon asked him.

Tom looked at her sadly and answered, "That's just the way it has to be."

Sharon looked at him in confusion for a minute, before lowering her eyes and letting whatever Tom just said sink into her brain.

Tom placed his fingers under her chin and brought her gaze back up to meet with his, before they both closed their eyes and Tom leaned in towards Sharon for one final kiss.

"I will always be with you, Sharon", Tom whispered against her lips. His body soon disintegrated into a cloud of sparkly green dust.

Sharon sat there for a minute, turning her dazed look back up to the stars, which shone brighter then she had ever seen before in her entire life. For one moment, her reunion with Tom was the happiest she had ever felt in a long, long time, but now that he was no longer with her, Sharon knew she had to be strong and carry on without him, in order to save the life of the giant coconut crab, her best friend. Now that she knew she was never alone, nor would she ever be, Sharon stood up and looked to her right, looking towards the direction of the cabin, glaring at it in anger. She looked back up towards the stars one last time, wondering how on earth she was ever going to save Tamatoa, before glaring back at the cabin and running over to it.


	22. Chapter 22

Sharon grabbed John by the front of his shirt and slammed his back against the wall, as she screamed in his face, " **YOU LIED TO ME!** "

"Lied?" John asked her. "About what?"

"You said you had no children!" Sharon reminded him. "Were you lying or is there something you're too ashamed to tell me?"

All of a sudden, John grabbed Sharon by her shoulders and pushed her off of him, causing her to fall backwards onto the couch. The old man eyed her angrily, as he pointed his finger at Sharon and said to her, "Now, you listen to me, you little schlemiel. You have no idea who you're dealing with here, got it? I don't know what the hell you're talking about, and even if I did, I don't have to tell you nothing, you hear? You ever threaten me like that again, it'll be the worst mistake of your life!"

Sharon sat up and glared at John, mirroring the same facial expression as him, and said to the old man, "Funny you should say that." Standing up from the couch, the young golden-haired woman walked over to the closet and found her black leather jacket hanging on the back of the door. She reached into the inside pocket and pulled out the picture of her and Tom, before shutting the closet door and walking back over to John, showing him the photograph as she said to the old man, "Because _he_ said something to me like that almost three years ago!"

In a matter of seconds, John's expression went from straight anger to curiosity and confusion, a hint of fear in his eyes.

Sharon handed him the photograph, as John took it slowly and looked at the young man with black hair sitting next to her in the picture. He pointed at the image and looked back at Sharon, asking her, "When was this picture taken?"

"About a year ago", Sharon answered, her voice calm this time. "I went out to this nightclub one time and noticed there was this shy, young man standing in the corner all by himself. I stood up and was about to go introduce myself to him, but then this black boy named Joaquin said something to me that made me mad and I almost got into a fight with him. Tom interfered and somehow managed to talk me out of it, but just before I could even ask him what his name was, I passed out from drinking too much alcohol. When I woke up the next morning and found myself lying down in his apartment, Tom tried explaining to me what happened, but I reacted poorly towards him and left. I felt bad afterwards and went back to visit him the day after. I thanked him for saving my life and asked him if he wanted to go out for coffee. He said yes and we eventually started to hit it off. I asked him if he had a family, but he told me the only living relative he had left was his father. I asked if I could meet him, but for some reason, Tom didn't seem to think it was a good idea."

John looked at the picture again and sat himself down on the couch, studying the face of the young man with a heavy heart.

Sharon looked at him sadly and asked John, "You're Tom's father, aren't you?"

The old man continued to look at the photo, as he said to Sharon, "Thomas mentioned he had a girlfriend once. Last time I talked with him, he said he would plan on us getting together so I could meet her. That was one year ago. I haven't heard from him since."

"Did you know he died?" Sharon asked him. Her voice was low.

John turned his head right and looked at her, pain written all over his frail, old face.

"What did you do, John?" Sharon asked him. "And don't lie to me."

The old man looked away from the golden-haired young lady and sighed to himself. He paused for a minute, wondering how to start. "Denise and I...", he began. "...We always loved each other, but we still had our differences...One night, we got into an argument. About what, I don't remember. Thomas was probably about nine, maybe ten years old. He heard us yelling and came out of his room to see what was happening. That's when he saw me grab his mother. Just as I pushed her up against the wall, Thomas threw something at me and told me he hated me for hurting her. At that point, I lost my temper. I let go of Denise and marched over to him. I yelled at him, told him I hated him back, and..."

Sharon waited for him to continue, but the old man said nothing. "What?"

John's eyes turned misty, as he continued to explain, "I hit him. Punched him in the face so hard, I ended up giving him a bloody nose. I regretted it immediately, but before I could even apologize, Thomas got so upset, he ran away. Denise started yelling at me and told me she couldn't take it anymore, that she was unhappy with her life. I tried apologizing, begging her not to leave, but she wouldn't hear of it. She went out looking for Thomas and found him down by the beach, but when she came back after finding him, Denise packed her bags and told me she was taking Thomas with her and moving back to New Zealand."

"Moving back?" Sharon asked him.

"We were living in Cape Cod at the time", John answered. "Denise came over to the States from Wellington years ago, back when I was studying marine biology. We married a few months after meeting and moved to New Zealand for our honeymoon. Thomas was born and two years later, we moved back to America. We had a few disputes here and there, but the only thing that kept us going was our son. "

"Did Tom ever forgive you?" Sharon asked him.

John sniffled and said to her, "...I was devastated after Denise left me and took him away...I didn't think I would ever see him again..." The old man turned his head right and looked at Sharon. "But then, one day, I got this letter in the mail. Thomas wrote to me and told me his mother had died. So I flew to New Zealand to meet with him..." John looked away and focused his eyes back onto the picture, studying the smiling face of his deceased son. "...But one look at him, I hardly recognized who he was. He grew up too fast. I told him I was sorry, that I didn't mean to hurt him, and that I wished I could have been there for him...To be the father he deserved...And then Thomas, he..." The old man's lower lip trembled, as he lowered his head and put a hand to his face, crying softly.

Sharon, her heart filled with sympathy for the old man, walked over to John and placed her hands on his shoulders, comforting him. "What did Thomas do after you told him that?" She asked him. "Did he hug you?"

John sobbed and nodded his head in response.

Sharon rubbed his shoulders and told him, "Did you say you love him?"

The old man looked up at the golden-haired woman, tears rolling down his face, and said to her, "That's all I ever wanted to tell him. My hopes and prayers of seeing my son again had finally been answered."

Sharon nodded her head, understandingly, and said to him, "Did you two ever reconcile?"

John wiped away the tears from his eyes and sighed deeply. "Yeah, we started to get to know each other again". he answered. "I asked Thomas if he needed anything, but he said no. I wrote him a cheek every month anyway."

Hearing the source of where her beloved Tom had gotten his three-thousand dollar fortune from, Sharon immediately thought about Bret, a look of guilt on her face. "And then _I_ came into your life", she said, sadly.

"Ah, don't say that", John told her. "It's not your fault. Neither one of us knew this was going to happen. It just did."

Remembering the words her dead lover spoke to her, Sharon gave the old man a gentle smile and said to him, "You're Tom's dad, all right."

John's tear-stained face gave her a hint of a smile, showing appreciation for her honesty.

Sharon looked over towards the window and walked over to it, looking out and seeing the bright light of the blue moon was now covered by a dark cloud.

"What time is it?" Sharon asked, not taking her eyes off of the sky.

"It's about ten-thirty or so", John answered. "Why?"

Sharon turned around and walked over to the phone, picking up the handset and dialing a number.

John stood up and asked her, "Who are you calling?"

Sharon put the receiver to her ear, listening to it ring, and answered with, "You said we needed a plan on getting Tamatoa out of there, right? Well, I've got one, but we'll have to do it tonight. You still with me?"

"Hey, was I the one who said you failed?" John questioned her, jokingly. "You bet I'm still in!"

Just as John walked past Sharon and headed out the door, a male voice answered on the other end of the phone.

" _Hello?_ "

"I know I told you to get out of my life, but I need you to do one last favor for me...There's something else."


	23. Chapter 23

Meanwhile, still chained-up in the underground lab, Tamatoa was beginning to worry about Sharon. He no longer cared what happened to himself. All he wanted was for her to be safe. And with that dangerous Daniel running around, the gargantuan coconut crab had no idea what he was up to, but if given the chance, he would see to it himself to end that human's life if he so much as touched a single strand of hair on Sharon's golden head.

Just when he was beginning to wonder how he would ever escape and look for her, Tamatoa was disturbed from his thoughts when he heard the door open and looked to his left, eyes wide with worry.

The door to the laboratory opened and John and Bret appeared from out of the shadows.

"John?" Tamatoa asked them, surprised. "Bret, what are you doing here?"

Bret shrugged his shoulders and said, "Getting you out of here. What else?" The young man walked over to the control panel on the other side of the room, as John walked over to Tamatoa and said to him, "We busted in here after we knocked out the security guard with a rock."

John went over to join Bret at the control panel and looked down at the many buttons and levers with uncertainty. The old man looked at Bret and asked him, "You know how to disable the electrodes?"

"I learned a few things in computer technology in high school", Bret answered, waving his fingers as he spoke, looking over everything carefully before pressing a few buttons.

While John and Bret were busy tinkering with the control panel, Tamatoa heard the sound of soft footsteps approaching and looked straight ahead of him. Appearing out of the darkness and into the dim light of the cloud-eclipsed moon was a young woman with shoulder-length golden hair and light brown eyes shielded behind black-rimmed glasses.

"Sharon?"

The young woman nodded her head in response.

Feeling guilty for his actions, the giant coconut crab sighed to himself and said to her, "I'm sorry, Sharon. I never should have yelled at you or blame you for something you didn't do. You were always a good friend to me. I know you'd never abandon me. And I know I probably don't deserve a second chance, but if you could find it in your heart to forgive me, I humbly ask that you accept my apology and allow me to continue being a part of your life."

Sharon blinked, a tear falling down her cheek, as she smiled at Tamatoa and slowly walked up to him, placing her right hand on his face. The two of them closed their eyes, as Sharon touched her forehead to his and began to sing softly.

" _Oh, my love/If it's all I can do/I'd take the fall for you/'Cause I will soar/When I lay down with you/And give my all for you/_ _Oh, my love/If it's all I can do/I'd take the fall for you/'Cause I will soar/When I lay down with you/And give my all for you._ "

When Sharon had finishing singing, she stepped back and looked up at Tamatoa, who smiled down at her for a brief moment, before an electrical surge caused him to yell out in pain.

Sharon stepped back even further and looked over at the control panel. "Bret!"

"Sorry! I pressed a button on accident", Bret explained.

John rolled his eyes in annoyance and slapped Bret in the back of the head. "You idiot! You went into a trance soon as she started singing", he said.

Sharon sighed and shook her head. "He's never gonna get it, is he?" She said to herself. Sharon then looked up at the gargantuan coconut crab and said to him, "Look, Tamatoa, I don't care if they sentence me to lethal injection or life in prison. I'm getting you out of here."

The cocking of a gun was heard, as well as a male's voice. "I don't think so, girl."

Sharon turned around and saw it was Joaquin who had spoken. The black man was holding a revolver in his hands and pointing it directly at her.

Just as Tamatoa started to growl at the black man's threat, Sharon turned around to face the giant crab behind her and said to him in a calm voice, "No, Tamatoa. Let me handle this."

"How the hell did you get in here, anyway?" Joaquin questioned her.

Sharon turned around and started walking over towards the black man, carrying an air of calm about herself. "I could ask myself the same thing about you", she said, trying to be witty. "Quite frankly, I don't care at the moment, but unless you want to suffer at the hands, or claws, of death, I suggest you hand over the gun and-"

Joaquin tightened his grip on the revolver and warned her, "I'm not playing around with you, Sharon. Now step back!"

Sharon retained her composure and did as he said, raising her hands as she walked backwards and stood in front of Tamatoa.

"I don't want to shoot you, bitch, but I will if I have to." Joaquin shot his eyes over to the left and said, "Bret, you and that old fart step away from the controls or else I'll-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Joaquin felt something stab into the side of his neck and let out a pained gasp, as he dropped his weapon and placed a hand over the source of his pain.

Sharon and Tamatoa both blinked in shock. Bret covered his mouth with one hand, while John said to himself in a dry tone, "Ouch."

When Joaquin fell to the ground and removed his hand, there revealed to be a tranquilizer sticking in the side of his neck.

A figure revealed himself from the shadows, and who should it be but the agent known as Wallace. He lowered his tranquilizer gun and looked down at the unconscious black man, asking himself, "Why do they always have to resort to violence?"

Sharon breathed a sigh of relief and ran over to hug the agent, who hugged her back in return.

"Thank you, Agent Wallace", Sharon praised him.

"Call me Henry", Agent Wallace retorted. He then released Sharon and walked over to the control panel, looking at Bret and John with a displeased look, before typing in a code and pulling a lever up, deactivating the electronic system that was connected to the electrodes in Tamatoa's neck.

"The next time you gentlemen want to release a giant sea creature back into the wild, just ask nicely", said Agent Wallace, looking at John and Bret.

"We were just about to get it until you showed up", said John. The old man shrugged his shoulders and admitted, "Sort of. What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were one of them."

"Not anymore", said Agent Wallace. He turned around and walked back over to Sharon, as he placed his hands on her shoulders and explained to her, "I've made arrangements with your father for you and Tamatoa to meet him tonight."

Sharon blinked in surprise. "My father?"

"Guys, look", Tamatoa said to the four humans, indicating towards the window.

Sharon looked to her left and saw the clouds in the sky had moved on, revealing the moon once more, an eerie blue light surrounding the silver sphere.

Soon as the light of the blue moon hit her body, Sharon started to feel ill and felt her knees buckle below her. Agent Wallace caught her in his arms just in time.

Tamatoa blinked at the sight of what just happened to his human owner and asked, "Sharon, what's wrong?"

"I don't know", Sharon moaned, putting a hand to her throat. "I don't feel too well all of a sudden."

"Don't worry", said Agent Wallace, placing an arm around her waist and leading her over to the control panel. He sat Sharon down in a chair and said to her, "Right now, you need to stay out of the moonlight. Bret, John, and I will take care of Tamatoa."

"What do we do about the chains?" Bret asked him.

Agent Wallace reached into his suit and pulled out two screwdrivers. "You know how to use _these_?"

"I know how to use one", said John, taking one of the screwdrivers and walking over to Tamatoa.

Bret took the other one and looked at the agent with a raised eyebrow. "What do you carry around screwdrivers for?"

"One: because I don't have the key for the locks on the chains", Agent Wallace answered. "And two: I work as a mechanic in my spare time."

The agent patted Bret on the back and led him over to the gargantuan coconut crab, casting a worried glance over at Sharon, before climbing onto the back of Tamatoa's barren shell. John and Bret began worked quickly to unlock the many chains holding him down, tossing one screwdriver or the other to Agent Wallace from time to time so he could help.

Breathing heavily, Sharon put a hand to her forehead and felt sweat dripping down the side of her face. She tried wiping some of it off, but when she pulled her hand away and looked at her palm, not only was there sweat, but also a small mass of bubbles.

Sharon's eyes widened in shock, the familiar scent of saltwater filling her nostrils, as she looked down at the bubbly cluster with confusion and whispered to herself, "What is happening to me?"

Just as Bret finished picking the last lock on the chains, he looked over at Sharon and called out to her, " **LOOK OUT!** "

Before she could register anything that was going on, Sharon felt somebody pull her out of her chair and tried turning her head to see who it was, but was punched in the face and became knocked out in the process.

Tamatoa looked over and saw a man wearing a black ski mask over his face had thrown Sharon over his shoulder and was now running towards the exit on the other side of the room.

Bret slid down off of Tamatoa's shell, as did John and Agent Wallace, and began chasing after the man in the mask out the door and down the hall.

John ran over and stood in the doorway, placing his hands on either side of the frame as Agent Wallace followed right behind him. Both men looked concerned.

John turned around and asked the agent, "What are we gonna do now?"

"I'll call the police", said Agent Wallace.

John blocked the agent from getting past him and said, "What good would calling the cops do? They ain't gonna do nothing for her. Hell, not even that one muscle-head would help her out. Remember?"

The sound of heavy chains rattling made both men turn around, as they watched Tamatoa stand up for the first time since his imprisonment, the chains slipping off his body like an old, worn-out cloak. The now-furious coconut crab stared up at the ceiling and stabbed one of his giant claws through it, tearing down the roofing of the laboratory room and filling it with debris, as well as the light of the blue moon.

"They can't do nothing for her", said Tamatoa, his voice deep and monstrous. "But _I_ can."

Just as he had reached the outside of the facility, Bret ran over towards the man in the ski mask, who shoved the unconscious Sharon into the back of a car. The man then got into the car and started up the engine right away, taking off at great speed before Bret could even get to him. He was too late in rescuing Sharon.

Bret fell to the ground on his knees, tears beginning to fill his eyes, and said to himself in a voice of despair, "What have I done?"

Just at that moment, a giant claw burst out of the concrete ground behind him. The sound of crumbling rock and creaking metal forced Bret to slowly turn his head and look over his right shoulder, as he gazed up in horror and amazement at the sight of the gargantuan coconut crab, his dark body blazing with bioluminescent markings.

Bret stood up at once and turned his body to face Tamatoa, who leaned his face in close to the dark curly-haired human, and asked him in a demonic voice, "Where. Is. He?"

"The Majestic Centre", Bret answered. "That's the only place I know where he would go."

" _ **Where is it!?**_ " Tamatoa demanded.

"It's on the other side of the city", said Bret, failing to hold back tears. He did not cry from the giant crab yelling at him, but from fear of what the man in the black ski mask might do to Sharon. "It's the tallest building in Wellington. You've got to do something, Tamatoa. He's gonna kill her!"

"Over my dead body", Tamatoa growled, before taking off to rescue his human owner.

When Sharon regained consciousness, she opened her eyes and found herself lying down on a carpeted floor in what looked like a conference room. Her skin was muggy and she felt a stinging pain on the right side of her face, a trickle of blood flowing out of the corner of her mouth. She smelt of the ocean.

"It's not even warm tonight and yet you're sweating like a pig", said a male voice.

Sharon sat up slowly and looked over her left shoulder. A familiar man with dark brown hair was standing over by the window.

"You must be even stupider than I thought", he said, turning his head right to look over at Sharon. His cold blue eyes meeting with the pale brown of hers, as he said to her, "I mean, did you really think a leopard could change it's spots over night?"

Sharon's eyes widened in shock and confusion. "Daniel?"

The black-hearted man gave her a sly smirk and walked over to where Sharon was sitting on the floor, staring down at her as he cupped his right hand under her chin and forced her to look up at him.

"Have you figured it out yet, pet?" Daniel asked her, as he brought her lips to make contact with his, kissing her roughly.

Sharon pushed him away in disgust and stood up at once, stepping away from him as she slowly began to walk around to the other side of the conference table, keeping her distance from the deranged Daniel.

"I've waited sixteen years for this moment, Sharon", Daniel told her, walking the same slow pace as her as he spoke. "I think you'll find it very satisfying this evening."

"Why are you doing this, Daniel?" Sharon questioned him. "I thought we were over our rivalry. You said you were my friend."

Daniel shook his head and said to her, "No, you stupid twat. I'm not your friend, and nor will I ever be! As far as I'm concern, you're still the enemy in this picture."

"Daniel, please", Sharon begged him, clutching her hands onto the back of an office chair. She shook her head and said to him, "You're not making any sense."

"Don't be so modest, Sharon", said Daniel, now walking over to the other side of the table where Sharon was. "I'm sure you can make _some_ sense out of it. After all, Bret was the one who told you in the first place."

"I thought I was doing you and Bret a favor", said Sharon, now starting to get scared. "If Bret hadn't told me, I never would have told my mom, and the child protective services would never have taken you away from your abusive father. You'd probably be dead right now if it weren't for me!"

"Abusive or not, he was still my father", said Daniel, his expression turning into a scowl of vengeance.

Sharon pushed the office chair towards Daniel, but the twenty-something year old man simply moved out of its path. Just as he was about to grab her by her throat, Sharon slashed at his arm with one swipe of her hand and clawed her fingernails through his skin. Daniel let out a groan of pain and pulled his hand away, grabbing at his wrist as he looked at the blood that began seeping from his wound.

Sharon jumped on top of the table and made ready in case he decided to attack her again, but Daniel did nothing but stare at the bloody marks she had left on his arm, breathing heavily.

Sharon looked at her trembling hand, her fingers stained with Daniel's own blood, and clutched at her wrist as she fell to her knees on top of the table, feeling faint.

No more than a minute later, Daniel laughed to himself and looked over at Sharon, asking her in a dark, whispered voice, "What was it like, Sharon?...Hearing Thomas' last breath?"

Sharon looked up and stared at him with disbelief, her eyes filled with dread. "...What?"

Daniel allowed his bleeding arm to drop to his side and took a few steps to the right. "Did he say he loved you? Did he tell you not to be afraid?" Daniel asked her, mocking her and enjoying seeing the look in her eyes. "Those were his last words, am I right?"

Suddenly putting two and two together, Sharon's eyes grew wider and her face turned white as a ghost. She slowly shook her head, unable to believe what she was hearing. "...No..."

"That's right, Sharon", said Daniel. "It was me. I was there. I heard every word." Pulling out a tiny tape recorder from his pant pocket, Daniel pressed the _Play_ button and the screaming voice of a young woman was heard. _"Let me go!"_ She yelled. The voice of Tom followed soon afterwards, saying, "Get off of her!". Sharon heard the woman scream again and recognized it as her own vocals. Obviously, she had just been knocked out by the attacker at that point. The rustling of clothes and the sound of grunts from the two men indicated they were now wrestling with each other, as a scream of pain was soon heard from Tom, no mistaking that he had just been stabbed.

Listening to her beloved Tom being murdered made Sharon feel as though someone had just stuck their entire hand through her chest, ripping her heart out. Salty tears filled her eyes and her mouth hung open in horror over hearing the death of the only man she ever loved.

Another pained gasp was heard from Tom, as Daniel's own voice was heard on the recording, _"No hard feelings, Thomas. This is between Sharon and me. You're lucky I'm letting her live."_

Daniel pressed the _Stop_ button on the recorder and explained to Sharon, "Just as a baby needs a lullaby to put itself to sleep, I, myself, composed my own little melody to listen to every night for the past twelve months...And it's all thanks...to _you_."

" _ **NO!**_ " Sharon yelled at him, tears falling down her cheeks. " ** _YOU BASTARD! HOW COULD YOU?!_** " Sharon lowered her head and let out a sound of pained anguish, hugging herself for comfort and stability before placing her hands down onto the table.

"I'm a man of my word, Sharon", said Daniel, his voice calm and intimidating and as cold as ice. "I told you I was going to take your family away from you. I just had to wait until the moment was right."

"Oh, God!" Sharon exclaimed, letting out another agonizing cry of despair. The fact that she never thought to suspect Daniel as Tom's killer made Sharon believe that she was now the biggest idiot on the planet. If it hadn't been for her, he would still be alive. Even though she had just seen Tom in spirit not two hours ago, _and_ the fact that he told her not to blame herself for his death, Sharon still felt partially responsible for what happened to him.

Daniel walked back over to the window again, looking over the city of Wellington. "Oh!" He exclaimed, turning around to look back at Sharon, as he reached into his other pocket and said to her, "And Mommy dearest, by the way..." Daniel tossed whatever object he pulled out of his his pocket onto the table. The object landed next to Sharon, who turned her head left and looked down at what could only be described as a bag of ash, the only remains of her mother!

Sharon quickly jerked her head up and looked upon the murderer of both Tom and her mother with daggers of fire in her eyes.

Daniel smiled wickedly and said to her, "...sadly won't be able to attend the funeral."

Sharon let out a scream of agony and rage, before jumping off the table and charging at Daniel, who lunged himself at her and grabbed her by her shoulders. Sharon wrestled him down to the floor, her hands wrapped around his neck, and began pounding his head into the carpeted ground as she started to choke him. Daniel grabbed at her wrists and tried prying her hands away, but he couldn't. She had him pinned.

Somehow, Daniel managed to slip one leg up and pushed Sharon off of him with his foot, sending her flying across the room into an almost-somersault and landing her onto her back. This only renewed her adrenaline, as Sharon sat up right away and sprang forth at Daniel again, only for him to straight up kick her in the stomach. Sharon inhaled sharply and felt her breath get caught in her throat, as a painful and unpleasant sensation drained her of all the strength left in her body. Feeling she was going to pass out, Sharon bent herself over and let out a soft groan, gasping for air.

Daniel took advantage of the young woman's vulnerability and turned her around, bending her over the table and placing her arms behind her back.

Sharon felt powerless against him, as Daniel leaned himself over her and grabbed a handful of her golden-yellow hair, pulling her head back in the process.

"No", Sharon whimpered, crying softly.

"I am not loosing tonight, you little slut", Daniel whispered into her ear through clenched teeth. The sound of a switchblade opening made Sharon close her eyes shut, her body trembling with fear. "Now just hold still while I mutilate you until you're good and dead", Daniel threatened her, lowering his hand holding the switchblade down to her groin area. "And don't be scared, Sharon. This will only hurt for a minute."

Before the deranged man could do any further harm to Sharon, a ray of glowing neon lights caught Daniel's attention and forced him to slowly look over his left shoulder. The second he turned around and looked out the window, Daniel found himself face to face with the midnight-colored mask of a hideous crab monster, his murderous eyes the same color as the magenta markings on his menacing facial expression.

Sweat dowsing his brow, a nervous Daniel dropped the switchblade in his hand and stood there gapping like a fish caught on a hook.

The bioluminescent crustacean roared like a prehistoric beast, as he busted one of his gigantic claws through the window and grabbed at Daniel, who let out a blood-curdling scream as the gargantuan coconut crab pulled him out of the building.

Sharon turned around and saw Tamatoa holding Daniel outside of the Majestic Centre, dangling the terrified, screaming man some 380 feet above the city street.

Daniel fought himself to escape the tight grasp of Tamatoa, but his efforts were all in vain. The giant, bioluminescent crab brought the pitiful human close enough to his face, so much so that Daniel could practically see his own horror-filled reflection staring right back at him in Tamatoa's eyes.

"Please...", Daniel begged, sounding desperate. "Don't kill me!"

"Say hello to your fantastic death abyss... _monster_ ", said Tamatoa, his voice dark and demonic, as he echoed back to the last time he and the cold-hearted Daniel spoke. The role of man and monster now reversed.

Just as Tamatoa opened his claw and was about to let him fall to his death, Daniel grabbed onto the outside ledge of the building and yelled in pain when his fingers spiked themselves onto the jagged edges of the glass from the broken window, nearly severing them from his hands.

Daniel looked up in desperation and saw Sharon standing near the window above him, looking distraught.

Slowly, but carefully, Daniel lifted one of his bloodied hands up to her, moaning in pain as he did so, and gave her a look of utmost regret. "Sharon...Please..."

Despite her enemy's genuine plea, Sharon could not find it in her heart to help him. Instead, she shook her head slowly, tightening her lips as her eyes filled up with fresh tears, and whispered softly to him, "I'm sorry."

Troubled at her words, Daniel turned his head left and looked over at Tamatoa, who said nothing and glared at him with lifeless eyes. It was that look alone that made the human filth Daniel realize there was no redemption for him. Tears filling his own eyes, Daniel glanced back at Sharon one last time, before letting himself go.

Sharon closed her eyes and looked away, putting a hand to her mouth and failing to hold back a sob, while the giant, bioluminescent crab watched him fall to his death without one scratch of remorse.

Soon as Daniel was no longer in sight, Tamatoa's face went from menacing to concern, as he looked at Sharon and asked her in a worried tone, "Are you hurt?"

Sharon shook her head, not looking at him. "No", she sobbed.

Tamatoa picked up Sharon carefully into his claw and placed her safely onto the back of his neck. "Hold on tight", he told her. Sharon did as he commanded, as the giant coconut crab began climbing down the building.


	24. Chapter 24

Bret got out of John's car and ran over to where a crowd of people had gather around at the foot of the Majestic Centre. He pushed his way through the crowd, trying to look over the sea of heads to see what it was they were clamoring about, but when he finally came into the clearing and saw what it was, he was unprepared. His brother's dead body laid on top of a yellow cab, a pool of blood surrounding him and flowing down over the edge of the vehicle. His eyes were open and, for once in his life, looked to be filled with sadness and regret. In his final moments, Daniel knew the wrong he had done, but it became too late for him to do anything about it, and the poor man died alone and unloved.

Bret looked upon the face of his deceased older brother, shedding a tear as he did so, and felt his entire body go numb, unsure how to feel about his death. He did not even react to when he heard the people around him scream and back away in fright, as a giant, bioluminescent coconut crab descended down from the Majestic Centre. A young, golden-haired beauty was riding on the back of his neck.

Agent Wallace arrived not long afterwards and got out of his car, shutting the door before he ran over and stood next to John. Both men looked up and saw that Sharon was all right, but as the agent looked at his watch and saw that it was five minutes to midnight.

Sharon looked down at the terrified faces of the people in the street and gasped when she saw Daniel's bloodied and mangled body lying on top of the cab.

"No", Sharon heard herself whispering, before falling into a dead faint.

Tamatoa turned his head and looked at her with concern. He picked up Sharon into his right claw and saw that her skin was starting to turn a pale green. Her body was drenched with sweat and looked to be dissolving into foam.

The gargantuan coconut crab turned his head right and looked to the shining blue moon hovering among the stars.

"No", Tamatoa said to himself. The giant crustacean looked towards the direction of Wellington Harbor and, with a look of determination, began racing towards the docks.

"Tamatoa, where are you going?" John yelled, trying to run after him, but Agent Wallace held him back.

"No, John!" Said Agent Wallace.

Snapping out of his catatonic state for only a minute, Bret heard a noise in the distance and turned around. John and Agent Wallace did the same thing and saw a group of helicopters that were heading themselves in Tamatoa's direction towards the docks.

John broke free from Agent Wallace and waved his arms at the approaching helicopters, shouting, "NO! Leave them alone!" His efforts were all in vain, for they did not hear him.

Tamatoa had just gotten himself past the city buildings and out into an open area. Still carrying the unconscious girl in his claw, the gargantuan crustacean continued heading towards the lagoon near the harbor, but just when he almost got to the pier, a blast from one of the helicopters shot Tamatoa in his side, causing him to roar out in pain. The giant coconut crab collapsed and fell on top of the abandoned warehouse, destroying what was left of the partially-charred building.

Lifting his head up, Tamatoa could see the glistening waters of the moonlit sea just a short step away from him.

"Sorry, Sharon", the giant crab heard himself saying, before Tamatoa proceeded to lift his right claw up and threw Sharon as far as he could out into the harbor, right into the ocean!

As her body began to sink below the dark waters of the ocean, the unconscious Sharon remained unaware of what was happening to her. She did not know that she had lost her black-rimmed glasses when Tamatoa had tossed her into the sea. Nor did she feel the freezing cold waters penetrating through her no-longer disintegrating skin. She was not even aware that pale, muscular arms had caught her and held her close to the naked chest of a blonde man whose lower half was taken over by a cream-colored fishtail. Placing his right hand to the left side of her face, the blonde merman looked at her with concern, before he planted a powerful kiss onto her lips, one that would allow her to breathe underwater.

Regaining consciousness, Sharon took a shaky breath, gasping for air and tasting the saltwater that filled her lungs. She slowly opened her eyes, the color returning to her fair face. She tried looking upon the face of her rescuer, but her vision was hazy and she could not make it out.

"Who are you?" Sharon asked him, her voice weak.

"Hold on", said the voice of the merman. His voice was soft and melodic, as though woven by silk.

Sharon did not understand, but did as she was told and wrapped her arms around his neck, closing her eyes and resting her head onto his shoulder.

The blonde merman turned his head right and looked up toward the trembling reflection of the blue moon shining over them, high above the surface of the water. Knowing that her life was in danger, the blonde merman took off faster than lightening and began swimming far away from the docks, taking Sharon to a undersea cave and placing her down on a rock for her to rest.

Regaining consciousness, the human girl opened her eyes and tried looking upon his face again, but couldn't see anything. "T...Tamatoa...", Sharon cried weakly, feeling scared.

The blonde merman placed the tips of his fingers over her lips, shushing her, and stroked her head with his other hand. "Be still, Sharon", he whispered, softly. "I know you are scared, but you'll feel better here soon."

Sharon closed her eyes again and felt him place a tender kiss upon her forehead.

The blonde merman left her for only a minute and returned back with a small vial in his hand. "Here. Drink this."

Sharon felt him place his hand behind her head and lifted it up to help her drink down the tonic in one gulp.

Right away, Sharon screamed and felt as though a sword had stabbed itself through the lower half of her body. She put a hand to her throat, crying in pain and feeling as though her lungs were on fire, and grabbed onto the blonde merman's shoulder with her other hand, gripping it tightly. Her body tensed up and a quiet sob escaped from her lips, but the blonde merman did not look worried. He grabbed her wrist with gentle force, hoping to ease her suffering, and continued stroking her hair with his other hand, as he whispered something of an incantation to help put her to sleep. Before she knew what was happening, Sharon soon felt whatever strength she had left leaving her body and stopped crying. Her eyes closed and she remembered no more.


	25. Chapter 25

" _'_ _The 'Attack of the 50 Foot Crab', as locals are beginning to call it, was the result last night of a vicious monster crab attacking the city of Wellington. While there were no injuries reported, it came too late for locals, Daniel Walters and Sharon Roberts-_ "

"- _L_ _ocal gang leader Joaquin Smith was arrested_ _under the suspicion of having something to do with Roberts' disappearance._ _Smith confessed he had been in contact with Walters three days before his death and had conspired to kill Roberts' mother, Alice._ _The seventy-year old woman was believed to have suffered and died from a fatal heart attack last Friday, but according to Smith, he had broken into her home and murdered her by injecting her with hydrogen cyanide. Smith is in current custody of the police and his_ _trial is to take place this Monday_ _-"_

"- _Local authorities have tried to make contact with Walters' younger brother, Bret, but have been unsuccessful in finding him. He had no knowledge of the conspiracy, according to Smith_ -"

"- _I've known Alice Roberts ever since her daughter was an adolescent. And to loose both of them within a span of just a few days apart is just too heartbreaking and unbelievable for words to describe. The fact that Sharon had been spirited away and killed by that monster makes me feel as though I've lost a daughter_ -"

"Bah!" John scoffed, sounding disgusted as he turned off the television and rose from the couch. The old man tossed the remote control aside and walked into the kitchen. "You never cared about Sharon! You're not even her father!" John shouted, taking a bottle of beer from the fridge and unscrewing the cap. He was about to take a drink and calm down his hot, boiling, rage-filled nerves, but once the aroma of bitter amber liquid hit his nose and filled his nostrils with the scent of malted barley, the old man stopped himself and sighed deeply, a look of shame on his face. Knowing that drowning his misery in alcohol would not bring Sharon back from the dead, the old man decided to tip the bottle over and poured the beer down sink and into the drain.

Hearing the doorbell ring, John turned his head left and looked toward the living room. He groaned in annoyance and set the empty bottle down on the counter. He went into the living room and took the shotgun from off of the wall and walked over to the door, cocking his gun. _If it's another one of those damn, crooked reports or interviewers again_ , the old man thought to himself.

John placed his hand on the door handle and opened it slightly, before kicking it open with his foot and holding the shotgun to the other person's eye level...Problem was, there was no other person. Nobody was standing outside his door. Just the the open area, the gold Plymouth parked next to the red barn, and an array of trees surrounding his property. The old man lowered the shotgun a bit and looked to his left, but all he saw was the river in the distance.

John lowered the shotgun to his waist and looked at the envelope that was taped to the outside of his door. It had his name on it. He placed the shotgun under his arm and took the envelope off of the door, opening it. Inside, he found close to three-thousand dollars in cash. There was also a note. John unfolded the note and read the message to himself: _Your son would have wanted you to have this. I won't need it were I'm going. - Bret_.

John stood on the front porch for a minute, staring at the note, before he looked around the area and stepped back into his cabin, shutting the door behind him. He placed his shotgun down on a sidetable next to the door and walked over to the fireplace. He looked up at the mantel, where a cream-colored seashell decorated in pearls and gold glitter glue laid next to a photograph of Sharon and his son, Tom.

The old man took the picture of the deceased young lovers off of the mantel and placed the envelope of money in its place. He then walked over and sat down in a chair, staring down at the smiling image of Sharon and Tom, how happy and alive they were. Oh, how he wished he could have been there for them in their time of need. The feeling was too much for the frail old man that he began to cry and lowered his face down to the picture, the glass shield protecting the only image he had of them together from his tears. He blamed himself for not being a good father to Tom, but he also blamed himself for what happened to Sharon. He did not know why Tamatoa had taken her away, but neither was he angry at him. All he knew was that wherever the three of them were, they were in paradise.

 **...**

Meanwhile, under the sea, a beautiful mermaid with shoulder-length golden yellow hair was just waking up from the painful transformation she had endured the other night. She moaned in distress and slowly opened her eyes, light brown in color, and felt herself surrounded by the cool temperature of the ocean around her. She sat up at once and found herself lying down on a soft, sponge-like bed, the blanket covering her fell from her chest, revealing she was without any clothes on. Looking down at herself, the little mermaid pulled back the blanket, and gasped in fear and surprise, placing her hands over her mouth. Right where her legs should have been, was now replaced by a shining fishtail of golden scales. The young mermaid girl turned her head and looked to her left. She swam over to the corner of the coral room and looked upon her unrecognizable reflection in the silver mirror adorned with a frame of pearls. Upon realizing her glasses were gone and that her vision was crystal clear, the frightened mermaid shook her head in disbelief and put a hand to her face, wondering who or what had brought her to such a metamorphic state and unfamiliar place. _Am I dead?_ She asked herself, feeling as though she was about to cry.

"Sharon?"

Upon hearing her name being spoken by a stranger, Sharon gasped and turned around, only to see a handsome creature with the face and torso of a man, but with a fishtail of cream-colored scales appear through a curtain of seaweed. He was tall and youthful in appearance, and had a lean, but muscular built to his half-humanoid frame. He had long blonde hair almost down to his shoulders and light brown eyes. He had _her_ eyes. Or rather, _she_ had _his_.

As the blonde merman swam over to her, Sharon leaned her back closer to the mirror and covered her breasts, thinking this man would hurt her and take advantage of her.

His eyes, however, were not looking at her breasts, but rather more at her face.

"Are you hurt?" He asked her.

Sharon shook her head slowly and answered, "I-I don't think so...Who are you?"

"Do not be afraid, my darling", he spoke softly, placing his left hand to her right cheek, caressing the side of her face in hopes of soothing away her fear. "To you, I look like something out of a dream. But I am so much more than that, Sharon. I am one of two people who gave you life and brought you into this world. I am the one person in your life who you claim was never there for you. You are right, but you are also wrong. If I hadn't met your mother, you would not be here right now."

Sharon did not understand what he was talking about, but she could not help the feeling that there was something very familiar about him. The way he spoke about her mother gave her the answer, as Sharon remembered back to the dream she had told Tamatoa about once. The dream in which her mother had just given birth to her and was visited by a strange man with blonde hair. A man she barely had any knowledge of, a _stranger_ who her mother trusted to hold her newborn baby. And although she had no acknowledgement of anything yet, the infant baby girl could not help but look up at the man holding her safely in his arms and smile at him, giggling as he smiled down at her in return. Unlike the last time, in which she could not remember seeing his face, Sharon could quite clearly see that the face of the blonde man this time and saw it was none other than the face of the merman now standing right before her. The blonde man looked at her mother and kissed her on her soft lips, telling her how proud he was of her. Tired as she seemed, Sharon's mother was the happiest she had ever been in her whole life.

Upon realizing that her "dream" was actually a memory from the past, Sharon looked into the eyes of the blonde merman and placed her left hand to the right side of his face, searching for the answer she had been wanting to hear all her life. "Daddy?"

The blonde merman smiled warmly at her and said to her, "Yes, Sharon."

Sharon's face lit up like a Christmas tree upon hearing his response, but then, as she looked down and saw both of their fishtails, her smile slowly started to disappear.

Sharon looked up at the blonde merman, who looked at her with hurt in his eyes, as she moved herself away from him and shook her head in anger. "No...No, I...That's impossi- No! You're lying! My father's dead! He's never coming back!"

Before the blonde merman could stop her, Sharon swam out of the nearby window and out into the dark blue waters of the sea. She swam as far away as she could, not daring to look back at the castle of coral miles behind her.

Sharon wasn't sure how far she had gotten, nor did she care. All she knew was that she was no longer a human. She was not dead either. She was a mermaid.

Feeling lost and alone, Sharon lowered herself down to the ocean floor, scaring away a school of tuna in the process, and lied herself down in the sand, burying her face into her arms and sobbing uncontrollably. She was scared to death and trapped in a world she knew nothing about. No friends, no family. Just a bunch of fish. _So this is what Tamatoa felt like when I lost him_ , Sharon thought to herself, crying harder _._ She did not even know what happened to him. The last thing she remembered was Tamatoa saving her from Daniel and then she lost consciousness. She was afraid that something bad might have happened to the giant coconut crab and that he really was dead for sure. Even if what the blonde merman told her was true, and that he really was her father, Sharon still refused to believe him. Without Tamatoa, she did not want to live. Without him, she was nothing.

Unaware that a giant shadow was looming over her, Sharon felt a giant claw gently stroke her entire body and heard a familiar voice asking her, "Sharon, are you okay?"

Sharon stopped crying for a minute and lifted her head up, her eyes filled with hope. She turned her body around and raised herself up on her elbows. She looked up to see who it was that had spoken to her, and who should it be but a giant coconut crab looking down at her. His face was a mixture of pink and purple, as were his antennas. He had red and dark blue shell colorings all over the rest of his hard body. The tips of his big, strong claws were bright orange. His front left leg was missing and he had a brand new hoard of golden treasures mounted on the back of his massive shell. But most important, he had blue eyes. Big, innocent blue eyes, just like when he was a baby.

"Tamatoa?"


	26. Chapter 26

The giant coconut crab said nothing and continued to look down at her with concern.

All at once, Sharon no longer felt afraid, for she recognized the gargantuan crustacean before her as the one she had named-

"Tamatoa!"

The human-turned-mermaid swam up to him and placed her arms around his neck, never wanting to let him go. The giant coconut crab closed his eyes and gently stroked her back with one of his giant claws, silently thanking the gods she was safe. Now that the both of them were reunited once more, neither Sharon nor Tamatoa ever wanted to loose each other ever again. As long as they were together, nothing could tear them apart.

When Sharon opened her eyes and looked above him, she let out a gasp of fright and cowered herself a few inches below Tamatoa, who looked over his right shoulder to see what it was.

The blonde merman who Sharon had encountered not too long ago, the one who saved her life, was standing over them and looking down at Sharon with a pleasant and comforting smile.

"Tamatoa?" Sharon asked him, fearfully.

The giant coconut crab's big blue eyes looked at each other, before they focused themselves back onto the blonde merman looming over his golden shell. "Well, well, well", said Tamatoa, grinning. He turned his body around to face the blonde merman, who sat down on a nearby boulder, and said to him, "How you been, babe? And may I say that you are looking especially kingly today, my liege? Tell me, did you do something with your tail? I bet you a nice jellyfish rub would do great benefits for your...um...um..."

Tamatoa stopped talking once he saw the stoic expression on the blonde merman's face. He was clearly uninterested in the giant coconut crab's flattery, but he was even more annoyed by the flamboyant mannerisms and gestures of the gigantic sea beast.

Sensing awkwardness, Tamatoa cleared his throat and brought Sharon out from hiding by reaching his left claw behind him and placing her by his side. "Sharon, allow me to introduce His Royal Highness, King Charles. Ruler of the South Pacific Ocean, Lord of-"

Sharon turned her head right and looked up at the gargantuan crustacean. "King?" She questioned him

Tamatoa's smile faded, as he turned his head left and looked down at her with confusion. "He didn't tell you?"

"I was about to tell her", said the merking, Charles. "But Sharon swam out on me before I could reveal to her the story on how I first met her mother."

Sharon looked up at Tamatoa again, who glared down at her and gave her a low, menacing growl.

"What?" Sharon asked him, more confused than ever.

Tamatoa did not speak, but placed his left claw behind Sharon and shoved her over to King Charles, who rose from the boulder and caught her in his arms.

"Are you all right, Peixe Amarelo?" Charles asked her.

Upon hearing that name, Sharon looked up at Charles and stared at him for a long time, a childlike innocence lurking into those light brown eyes or hers, as another distant memory came flooding back to her.

As their newborn baby started to fall asleep, rubbing her tired eyes as she let out a tiny yawn, the blonde man turned his attention to the exhausted brunette woman sitting up in her hospital bed and asked her, " _Y_ _ou remember the consequences I told you, Alice?_ " The woman nodded her head. " _Yes, I do_ ", she said. The blonde man looked down at his beautiful, sleeping daughter and placed her back into the arms of her mother. " _You may keep the child for as long as you like, but one day, Sharon will have to come home with me_ ", he said. " _I wish you wouldn't have to go_ ", she said, sadness filling her voice. " _I know, my love, but I have to_ ", he said to her. " _My kingdom needs me, as much as our daughter will need you. She will find out the truth one day, but until that time, Sharon must not know anything about my existence. Promise me you will keep this secret, Alice_ _._ " The woman nodded her head, tears filling her eyes. " _Then this is goodbye?_ " The woman asked him. " _I'm afraid so_ ", the man told her, regretfully. The brunette woman lowered her head, silent tears falling from her eyes, until the blonde man placed his fingers under her chin and brought her lips to kiss his for one final time. After a good long minute of passion, the blonde man told the brunette woman that he loved her, before he looked down at his infant daughter and kissed her temple. _"Until we met again, Peixe Amarelo. My little yellow fish."_

Bringing herself back into reality, Sharon looked at Charles again and asked him, "Why didn't Mom ever mention you? Why didn't you want her to tell me about you...About this...?"

Charles cupped a hand to Sharon's face and said, "Your mother and I thought it would be best to keep you from the truth until you were ready. She did not want you to see yourself as being different. I always assumed she wanted to tell you, but the memories of her and I together were too painful for her to bring up. She cried every night, I imagine?"

Sharon lowered her eyes and nodded. "I could hear her crying at night sometimes when I was a little girl", she answered. She looked back at Charles and told him, "I always assumed you were dead. Mom always did say you were bright and shiny like a star...How did she meet you anyway?"

"I met your mother in the summer of 1989", Charles explained. "She had come to a forest with some friends of hers and wondered away one night to come sit down by the riverbank. I still remember the way she looked the day we met: fair-skinned, long brown hair, sparkling blue eyes. Her eyes rippled like water over a brook whenever she laughed."

Sharon smiled a little at the poetic description he gave about her mother.

"Beautiful as she was, your mother was still a lonely woman back then", Charles continued, placing his hand onto Sharon's shoulder. "At the time, I just so happened to be swimming up the river to explore the shallows waters of the area. I sensed the presence of a woman crying above the surface and looked up and there she was. When I saw her tears hit the water, I summoned the courage to face the surface and revealed myself to her. She was frightened at first, but I assured her I meant her no harm. We introduced ourselves and talked for hours until the sunrise. When it came time for her to leave, she asked if she could see me again. I told her she could, but only if she came back alone. True to her word, your mother came to see me the next day, alone like she had promised. Most days, we would sit and talk for hours, sometimes we would swim in the river. And everyday before she left, I would hold your mother in my arms and whisper sweet things into her ear as we sat down by the riverbank and watch the sunset change the color of the sky to the darkest shade of blue, the color of the ocean. After a few months, your mother and I made a vow to always remain loyal to each other. Our friendship, it seemed, had blossomed into a forbidden love."

"Forbidden love?" Sharon asked him romantically, placing a hand over her heart.

"I knew your mother could never belong in my world and that I could never belong in hers", Charles explained, running his fingers through his once-human daughter's golden hair. "We both knew our love could never be, so we kept it a secret. More than anything, she wanted a child, but she was told her insides were not suited to bear any children."

"So how did she have me?" Sharon asked him.

"I made her a potion that would allow her to bring but one child into this world", Charles explained to Sharon, caressing the side of her face. "I told her to put only a single drop into a cup of water and drink it every night before she went to sleep. I told her to wait for thirty days and thirty nights and come back to the river when the blue moon would reach the center of the sky." Charles looked up and pointed towards the surface. "The blue moon, I told her, gives mermaids a special power to become human for a short period of time." Sharon looked up curiously and saw the trembling reflection of the blue moon shining faintly above the surface. "On the thirtieth night, your mother came back down to the river", Charles continued, lowering his head and looking back at Sharon, who looked back at him in return. "I kept my end of the bargain and sat down on the riverbank, allowing the light of the blue moon to turn me into a man and granting me the accessibility to impregnate her. I took her in my arms that night, providing for her the youngling she had wished for all her life. I did not see her again for a whole month, until one day, when she came back down to the river and told me she had not been feeling well. She then told me the most wonderful news that it was the result of the child that was growing inside her belly. Eight months later, you were born. And you looked just as beautiful as the day I first met my beloved Alice."

Sharon gave him a weak smile and whispered softly, "Oh, Daddy", as she slowly threw her arms around him. If merpeople were capable of producing tears underwater, then the stinging pain of salt that leaked out of Sharon's eyes were proof that they could.

"What consequences did you warn her about?" Tamatoa spoke at last.

Sharon, who had almost forgotten he was there, turned around and looked at him.

"I warned her about what was to come when Sharon turned older", Charles explained to the giant coconut crab. Sharon looked back at her father, worriedly. "I foretold her how she would die and what would happen if Sharon did not make it to the sea by the time the blue moon reached her by her 22nd year." Charles looked at Sharon and stroked her right cheek, telling her, "If Tamatoa had not gotten you to the ocean in time, I'm afraid you would have been turned into foam of the sea."

"You mean...Mom _knew_ she was going to die the way she did?" Sharon questioned him, confused.

Charles tightened his lips, shaking his head sadly. "I warned her what would happen should she choose to relinquish her innocence and purity to a merman. ' _Y_ _ou will have both a blessed and a cursed life should you choose to do_ _this_ ', I told her. But Alice insisted on bringing you into the world."

Sharon lowered her head, thinking back to all the hard times she gave her mother growing up. It couldn't have been easy for her, raising a child alone all those years, but just the simple act of love for her chance to bring life into the world was enough to convince Sharon's mother to do it.

"The point is, Sharon", said Tamatoa. "Your mother knew what she was getting herself into when she made the deal with your daddy and that you should be thankful you're still here because of her sacrifice."

Sharon turned around and looked up at the giant coconut crab. She swam up to him and said, "I _am_ thankful, Tamatoa, but I still don't understand what all of this is suppose to mean."

At that moment, Tamatoa raised one of his claws and reached over to take something off of his shell. Charles swam up next to Sharon, as Tamatoa lowered the object to the king of the merpeople and gave it to him. It was a silver crown with pink diamonds on it, the very one Sharon loved looking at above all of Tamatoa's treasures!

The golden-haired mermaid gasped when she saw the gem-encrusted tiara and said to her father, "I thought I lost that when they captured me and Tamatoa that day."

Charles weighed the crown in his hands and looked at Sharon, asking her, "Do you even know what this is?"

Sharon shrugged her shoulders and said, "It's a tiara, isn't it?"

"This was my great-great grandmother's diadem", said Charles. "Forged in the undersea lava fields from the metal of a Spanish pirate sword. Tamatoa found this one day while he was out collecting treasures for his shell. I told him to keep it safe until the time was right. Not too long afterwards, you fell into the ocean one night and ended up in Tamatoa's lair in the Realm of Monsters."

Sharon nodded her head and said, "So, _you_ were the one who told Tamatoa where to find me."

Charles chuckled and said to her, "Yes."

"I told you I was never really alone, Sharon", Tamatoa reminded her, smiling. "In a way, a part of you was always there watching over me. That part of you being your dad."

Sharon turned around and looked up at him, surprised. "Why didn't you tell me that before?" She asked him.

"You weren't ready yet", Tamatoa answered her.

Sharon felt Charles place the diadem onto her head and turned around to face him.

"And now you are, my little princess", said Charles.

For a moment, Sharon didn't know what to say. "Princess?" Placing a hand to the side of her head, Sharon turned around slowly and looked up at the giant coconut crab again. "I'm a...princess?"

Tamatoa bowed to her and said in a deep, but gentlemanly voice, "My lady."

Sharon blinked a few times, looking dumbfounded, and turned her attention back up towards the surface. The blue moon was still there, but the light surrounding it was now dying out. Soon, the silvery-blue sphere would be replaced with the bright, golden light of the sun and the color of the sky would chance to a glorious array of rich, warm colors.

Collecting her senses, Sharon blinked again and slowly lowered her head. She turned around and looked back at her father, asking him, "So...I can never swim up to the surface again?"

"You can", Charles answered her, "but you can never walk on land again, if that is what you mean. You're a mermaid now, Sharon. You need to accept that."

Sharon lowered her eyes and nodded her head in understanding.

Charles placed his fingers under her chin and lifted her head up to look at him, two pairs of golden brown orbs staring into each other. Sharon closed her eyes, as her father brought his lips to her forehead and left a gentle kiss upon her temple. She opened her eyes again and looked at her father like she was a little child again.

Charles smiled warmly at his daughter and said to her, "We will have lots to talk about later, my darling, but for now, the ocean is yours to explore. Embrace it."

Sharon smiled back at him.

Charles looked over her head and gave a simple nod of his head to the gigantic crustacean standing behind his daughter. "Take care of her, Tama."

"Don't worry, Daddy King, I won't take her that far", Tamatoa reassured him.

With all that said and done, Charles swam away back to the coral palace and left his daughter to be with her beloved coconut crab for the day.

Tamatoa opened his claw and picked up Sharon by her waist. The human-girl-turned-mermaid shrieked excitedly as she grabbed onto his claw, laughing as the giant coconut crab placed her onto the back of his shell.

"Where are we going?" Sharon asked him.

"You'll see", Tamatoa told her, in a singsong kind of voice.

No more than ten minutes later, the giant coconut crab emerged from the sea, carrying the golden mermaid on the back of his treasure-covered shell, and stepped onto the shore of what could only be described as a tropical paradise. The sky was still dark, but a bright, glowing light shined just over the horizon.

"Where are we?" Sharon asked him.

"On a hidden island in French Polynesia", Tamatoa answered, turning around and making a comfortable spot for himself to lie down in the sand. He then reached over and picked up Sharon into his left claw.

"What are we waiting for?" Sharon asked him.

"Shh", Tamatoa hushed her. He looked out towards the horizon and told her, "Watch".

Sharon did not understand what he was doing or what was going on, but did as she was told and looked out towards the sea that was forever to be her home. Before long, a golden sun had cast a glistening veil of diamonds across the sapphire blue waters of the pacific, painting the sky a mixture of bright pinks and pale blues. The two of them said little to nothing that morning, as the giant coconut crab and the golden mermaid sat on there on the white sandy beach together, watching the sunrise bring on the promise of a new beginning.

Shedding a tear in awe of such regal splendor and wonder, Sharon leaned up against Tamatoa and whispered softly to herself, "It's beautiful."

" _C'est la vie, mon ami_."


End file.
